Dying to Live
by Gnash1
Summary: Continuing story of Elena and Elijah and their lives together- continued from Amends 1st and Leaving 2nd .
1. Chapter 1

Dying to Live

The female reporter looked sadly into the camera. "Local horror novelist dies today at the age of 28. Details at ten."

Stefan and Damon had been in the midst of a raging argument over liquor consumption when that announcement rang into the room from the television in the corner. Both vampires froze, turning to stare.

"Oh God. You don't think…." Damon could only draw just enough breath to speak. He picked up his phone and dialed Elena. He was sent straight to voicemail. Drawing in a deep breath, he spoke into the recorder. "Yeah, your old, bony ass needs to call me." He dialed Elijah's digits then, but there was no answer. He knew better than to leave a voicemail. The older vampire didn't listen to him when they were in the same room. He would hardly retrieve a voicemail from him.

Stefan had already sat down on the couch and turned on his brood. For once, Damon sat down as well with no comment. He flipped his own brood switch and waited for the news story. He hoped that Elena would call him first.

"A crash on Interstate 64, at mile marker 17 has resulted in a death and a disappearance. Witnesses say that two tractor trailers apparently collided, forcing a number of smaller vehicles careening off the road. One vehicle, driven by local horror novelist Elena Gilbert-Michaels, struck a barricade, became airborne and landed in oncoming traffic. A retired EMT at the site immediately confirmed that Mrs. Gilbert-Michaels was deceased at the scene."

The female reporter turned to look at her co-anchor. "This, Gerald, is where the story begins to sound like the premise for one of her novels." Looking back to the camera, the reporter went on "In a bizarre twist, multiple witnesses say that a tornado then struck the single vehicle sending parts and debris flying in all directions. Remnants of Mrs. Gilbert-Michaels vehicle have been collected spanning a three quarter mile radius from the crash. And, most mysterious of all is that Mrs. Gilbert-Michaels body has yet to be recovered from the remaining rubble."

Grimly the brothers gathered their gear and headed together toward Richmond.

XXXXXXXXXX

Elijah searched her lovely broken face for signs of life knowing there would be none. He knew there were things that he should be doing, but he found himself unable to move from her side.

They had been on the phone, laughing, arguing about what he would make her for dinner tonight. Her laughter had changed, suddenly, horrifyingly suddenly, to a scream. She had died screaming his name. He had heard her neck snap. The sound echoed continually through his mind like the crack of a whip gathering in strength with each repetition.

He heard others entering the home he and Elena shared. Their scents traced their way up the stairs, one by one. He was unsurprised at their actions. They gathered below, silent except for the most necessary of words. He heard soft crying from Bonnie as well as Caroline. The upstairs of their home was still as death. As still as Elena's death. As still as the heart that had once beat in his chest, but had ceased for all of time tonight. They seemed to be aware that he was there, up the stairs, but no one came. He smelled fear from a few of them, desperation from all of them. Their grief was a layer of snow before the ice settled in. It was cold and blanketed him, them, in sorrow.

Then Jeremy came. He, a man now fully grown, was weeping before he came through the door. The others tried to stop him, but up the stairs he went. He found Elijah sitting there, next to their bed, still holding Elena's broken body in his arms. He was covered in her blood. They both were. But the blood on her would be wiped away, she would be cleaned one last time, her body made ready for its rest. And he would never be clean and he would have no rest. Only her smile, her laughter, her scent to haunt him until the sky grew forever dark and the earth faded away. The thought horrified him.

He looked up at her brother then, who sobbed in the doorway. Delicately he stood with her still in his arms and placed her on their white coverlet, pillowing her head with his hand. He felt the grind of broken bones as he settled her there. He pushed her hair behind her ears, as she always wore it and turned to her beloved brother. His beloved brother now, opening his arms.

Jeremy crossed the room and the two of them embraced. Elijah found there was no shame in tears of sorrow this deep. The two of them, grown, strong men had lost more than they could either one bear. Elijah and Jeremy cried together, unashamed over the wife, the sister that she had been.

After a few moments of raging pain between the two men, the separated, tears still streaming. "Is there any chance that…?" He understood what Jeremy was asking. No, Elena had not drunk his blood in a very long time. She was lost to them all, and Elijah still he could not let her go. Sadly Elijah shook his head. He found it tragic that so mundane a thing as a car accident would take her life after all she had survived.

Others began to come in then, emboldened by the shared grief. Damon came next. Elijah knew he had loved her too, perhaps as much as Elijah himself. This had annoyed him for years, this love the other vampire had for his woman. He had always worried privately that his Elena had loved the charming vampire in return with something warmer and more intimate than friendship. The fact that the elder Salvatore had known his Elena for nearly a full year longer had also grated on him. Now it mattered not at all. They embraced, tears also flowing between them for the woman they both had loved.

Elijah found only grief, no anger, nothing left but this terrible burning pain within him that did not cease. Pulling it out for all to see caused no embarrassment or damaged any pride. Pride was nothing. His Elena, the woman he had waded through time for, was gone after only seven years of peace together. Seven years in three thousand. But he would do it all again for those seven years.

The others would say later, amongst themselves, that they had never guessed at the depth of feeling that Elijah held for Elena. They had never understood the relationship until that day, when all was lost. When they watched a dignified (and terrifying) old vampire simply unravel like a piece of delicate lace over the death of their beautiful friend.

Bonnie and Caroline came to him, sobbing and held him as well. He was thankful for the sharing of this weight he carried. Their presence, the ones who had loved her too, made this, not easier, certainly, but shared and understood.

Bonnie took his hand after a few moments of sobbing into his bloodied shirt. "Will you let us clean her? Please? She would be horrified to be seen this way. You know how she was always cleaning." Her tears also continued to stream. Caroline, sobbing quietly, was waiting at the door as if she expected him to send them away with a shout.

Bonnie was right and he nodded. He should've done that, should've thought of it himself, but he was rooted in this place, next to her. Through streaming tears, ashamed of his thoughtlessness, he mouthed "Thank you" to them.

Bonnie filled three large bowls around the room and lit them with a glance. He smelled lavender, rosemary and sage. Funeral herbs to be burned, benefitting the dead and the mourning. How appropriate that Bonnie would know of the old ways.

He sat by the bed and held Elena's hand as the lovely scents filled the room.

The two young women began to work and to cry by turns. A large bowl of water, scented somehow with lavender as well and two rags their only tools. They cleaned away the blood and pulled away the clothing that had been torn and splattered by the collision. They tenderly washed her hair with the rags, removing the blood they could reach without moving her, gasping over the injuries they found there. The bleeding had long ago stopped and now only had to be washed away.

He, who supposedly possessed the wisdom of the ages, had so foolishly thought that they would have the chance to prepare, to plan for her death. He would lay out his logical argument for why she should stay with him, always. He would give her every reason why he needed her, always. They would walk through it together, and when it was done he would still have her. That had been the plan. His plan. His plan that was washed away in a soft spring rain and lost forever in tires and metal and concrete. His plan had come to nothing, and now she was gone.

XXXXXXXXXX

The body was cleaned and wrapped loosely in a pristine white sheet. It reminded him of the death shrouds of old, so he refused to allow them to cover her face. Most of her friends had gone home for the night having children to attend to, lives that they lived. It was expected that eventually they would lay her to rest. It was up to Elijah when, and no one asked, or made demands. He cared nothing for modern traditions, morgues, Medical Examiners or death certificates. Those things were nothing to him at all. More meaningless rituals that accompany death, like the herbs burnt while the body was cleaned. Elena's friends left him because they could do nothing else. Only the two Salvatores and Caroline remained as time ticked on.

Elijah finally moved onto the bed they had shared, lying beside her. He just needed to rest for a moment and then he would do what was necessary for her. He fell asleep with her cold hand in his.

He dreamed for the first time in a very long time. It was the lake he and Elena had walked around when he confessed that the sun and moon curse was a fraud. So long ago was this walk, this time, and yet only a few years. She was eighteen, and beautiful. He watched the sunlight play in her hair, the light wind making it dance and play around her shoulders.

"You are so beautiful." He told her. Her eyes widened, wary.

"Only because I remind you of her." She meant Katarina.

"No sweetling. You are beautiful here," A finger tapped her chest. "as Katarina never could be."

"I love you, Elijah." He had loved her even then, while she was a toy strew about by the wills of others.

"I love you, too, Little One."

"I can love you forever now." She was offering to watch over him. Wait for him. She was preparing to say goodbye. Reflecting his turmoil, the wind began to blow around them and the sky darkened. She looked up to the sky and said quietly "No." The winds calmed and the sun reappeared.

"Yes, my Little One. Perhaps someday I'll see you again, get to meet with you wherever it is that you are now." The tears now, even in his dreams ran down his cheeks. He was trying to be strong when he had no strength at all.

"But Elijah, why wait? Come to me now. Open your eyes, my husband."

Elijah's eyes snapped open. She was warm and pink again. His Elena had rolled to her side and had one hand on his cheek, a thumb hooked in the dimple at his chin.

Elijah let out such a bellow that the three vampires downstairs jumped all at once. One word ripped from his chest. "Blood!"

Damon sniffed the air and moved to action, ripping the door off the refrigerator in his impatience to retrieve three blood bags. He was upstairs before the others seemed to understand what was happening.

Elena had laid a hand on Elijah's chest. She was still wrapped in the white sheet. In her movements to embrace him, it just covered her breasts. Elijah had his arms around her, tears again coursing down his cheeks, this time tears of joy.

"My love, you look terrible. Have you been out partying all night again?" She was running her hand along the creases around his eyes, the haggard appearance and blood clothes. Elijah could not answer her; he could only shake his head in wonder.

Damon came into the room with the blood bags in hand to hear her question. Tears were also coursing down his cheeks. Stefan and Caroline were close behind him. Gasps of wonder filled the room.

"Elijah, darling?" She called him that usually when she was half annoyed. She had other, more colorful words she used when she was angry. "Please will you tell me why I'm naked and all of our friends are in our room….crying?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Being the big mouth of the group, Damon found his voice first. "Be kind, Elena. Your husband has had a very hard day."

"Elijah, as requested." He laid the bags of blood at the foot of the bed. He stopped and gave Elijah a purposeful look that suggested he make sure she drank from one of these as quickly as possible. Elena glanced down at what he had and the entire room watched her eyes change to a barbaric red, darkened veins around the edges surrounding them. Anticipating that they needed to be alone, Damon herded the other two from the room and shut the door.

The three of them, had phone calls to make, but before that was done, they all stood staring at one another in wonder.

Caroline said "But I don't understand. Elijah didn't feed her. He said so. He was so sure."

"I have no idea, but I won't question it. She's with us again and there won't be any more car accidents to worry about." He was headed down the hall pulling his phone from his pocket. "I will call Jeremy. He needs to know." Around the corner he went, purposeful again. He didn't stop to wipe these new tears away as they leaked warmly from his icy blue eyes. He wore a smile that he was sure had been gone forever.

"Jer." A pause. "I know man, but…um….guess who just woke up with a voracious appetite?" A cautious hopeful pause followed by a whoop of joy on the other end. Damon laughed. Elena had been dead, and now she was not. It was as simple and complex as that. He couldn't help but laugh. He couldn't contain the joy any more than he had been able to contain the grief before.

XXXXXXXXXX

When Elijah said simply "There was an accident, Elena." Everything came back to her like a slide show in her mind. A meeting across town with her publisher to discuss the new book. She remembered laughing on the phone with Elijah because she was thinking of a salad for her dinner. He preferred to cook for her and was attempting to lure her in with favorites. She looked up into the rear view mirror while they talked to see the two trucks scrape one another, once, twice and then hearing the sickening sound of buckling steel. One truck was on its side, sliding, out of control. Other cars were pushed aside, but it seemed aimed at her like an arrow. There was nowhere for her to go to get away. She wanted to tell Elijah that she loved him, but the words would not come. Only his name escaped. He was yelling in the phone. She tried to drive faster to get out of the way, and then there was pain.

She was around his neck with her arms, face in his neck, trembling. "I'm so sorry darling."

The pain she had been through, and she was concerned for him.

"You are here, that is all that matters to me." He put a bag in her hands. "I know that we didn't discuss this, but I cannot let you go. Please, drink. Please stay with me." Hands in her hair, overwhelmed by his lips tongue, teeth, she gasped. The burning in her chest had travelled up to settle in the back of her throat. She thought of the bourbon she sometimes drank and found it was a similar burn, but this was more, deeper. "The transition." Her eyes asked if she was correctly understanding what he was asking for and he nodded. For the transition to be completed, she had to drink human blood. If she did not, she would be dead again in a few hours.

"Please, sweetling." Elijah could see that Elena was struggling with the situation, the changes that would be necessary. The tears streaked down his face once more. He had no right to ask such a thing of her, plan or not, but he would. Only twenty-two hours without her and he had been lost. It was always in her hands to decide. He would not force her, but he would ask because he could do nothing else. The bag of blood in her hands remained unopened.

Her eyes were red again, the dark lines becoming more pronounced. And then she really looked at him. "No, please, you can't do this darling." She sat the bag down again with the others and was wiping his face with her hands, horrified by his tears. Regardless of her hunger, he was more important. Without thinking she pushed it all away. "You cannot cry. You are impregnable, my Elijah. Please." She kissed his eyes.

"I've lost you once today." The warm brown eyes continued to leak at the edges. "Please don't leave again. I know we never talked about this, but I will teach you. We will learn together. You will be my childe and I will give you everything you will ever need. I cannot face the remainder of this life without you, Elena. I won't let you become something you would be ashamed of. I swear it on my life, on your life." He knew that was a consideration for her. She was too compassionate to be a killer of innocents.

After several moments of silence, Elena sat up, covered herself and turned to him. Picking up the blood bag he had given her, she asked "Will you show me how to do this without making a mess?"

And so began another phase in their relationship.

XXXXXXXXXX

Elijah's next priority was trying to understand where she was exposed to blood. The answer they had to arrive at caused them both some relieved discomfort, in the end.

The night before Elena's car accident, Elena had gone about unsettling Elijah's composure. She often told him often that he was entirely too dignified. Her favorite game was to rattle him. They had lain together on their bed after a long day of work. Elena had spent long moments relaxing in his arms, in the dark. Those times were precious for them both, but she had other plans for the night. Keeping her breathing and heart rate low, she waited until he was nearly asleep when she dove under the covers, giggling. She took him in her hands and her mouth in the most intimate way possible. He was unprepared for her ministrations. Hoping to stop her, he struggled with the covers to pull her away but could not reach her before he forgot the point of his efforts. Gasping, he lost himself in warmth and the slick heat of her mouth and tongue. His body drawing tight like a bow, every muscle contracted to its limit, his hips rose off of the bed as he shouted her name, at which time she playfully pulled away.

They came to believe that it was at this point that Elijah had bit his tongue. He still didn't remember, really. She was giggling and teasing again and he was wild with the need she had instigated. He caught her, rolled her over and together they reached a sweet, if not exactly tender, end. Elena told him that when she kissed him, sucked his mouth and tongue in a parody of her earlier attentions, she had tasted blood. Afterwards, in the bathroom, even her teeth had been red, but she had thought it might be her own.

And so they found that Elena's own actions had resulted in the current state of affairs. Covering her face with her hands, (apparently vampires can still blush- great.) Elena said to him "How exactly are we going to explain that to everyone? You know that they will want to know because you were so certain that it hadn't happened."

"We will tell them that your exposure to my blood was coincidental and accidental. Something that I was entirely unaware of at the time. We will leave it at that." Elena knew there would be a few that would press for answers. Perhaps by then, she would be able to answer frankly.

Elena discovered that in addition to the new thirst – which so far had kept Jeremy and his wife at home during Elena's recovery- she also had a whole new set of issues to deal with. She found that the older the vampire that changed you, the stronger you were. Also, contributing somehow was the fact that the maker's blood was more concentrated if they have not made a childe in a while. Elijah explained this and that he had not made a childe in over fifteen hundred years because of the amount of power he was handing someone. So Elena, entirely by accident, was not only thrust to the top of the food chain, but was now circling comfortably at ten thousand feet above it. When Elena said so to Elijah, he had hugged her, reminding her that he would not allow her to become some monster from one of her books.

Elijah also reassured her that he was prepared for all of this. He said that the very fact that she had been able to give him a dream before her transition was completed had indicated how very powerful she would be when the process was completed. He asked her then how she had managed that trick. She told him she had just been thinking how she wished she could see what he was dreaming and suddenly she was there, at the lake where he had walked and talked with her so long ago.

New things like unintentional bursts of speed, the wild hungry look that she got when she smelled blood in the air (which seemed to work from a twenty mile radius away), and breaking things with her bare hands now filled her days.

Elijah, as always, filled her nights. Things changed there too, actually. They met now as equals. There were no more worries from him about asking too much of her, hurting her. Conversely, she found that she could actually injure him, not that she would ever do it intentionally, but it happened occasionally in her enthusiasm. She was always horrified to find him marked in any way – bruises, bite marks, scratches on his back- but he seemed to wear them with pride even if they did heal so quickly. _Strange man._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_Elijah stood on the balcony watching them in the back yard. He was fairly certain his gardens would never be the same, but that was alright. She was having fun. It had been a month since Elena's ordeal, since their ordeal. She was adjusting alarmingly well. _

_ First they worked on how to control the hunger. She drank from blood bags twice a day. They found that she preferred it in a coffee cup, warmed a few seconds first. (Privately he shuddered at the thought.) But she picked up very easily on this idea of controlling the hunger beyond drinking every day. It appeared that Elena had developed a skill at compartmentalizing early on. It explained her ability, at such a young age, to accept some of the most savage parts of all things supernatural and not end up banging her head in a corner somewhere. Basically controlling the hunger around humans was a matter of compartmentalizing. Take the hunger and push it away, somewhere else, to be answered later. _

_Together they worked their way next through the emotional turmoil that involved becoming a vampire. Vampires were very emotional creatures. So they tended to feel things more deeply and sharply than humans did. When the transition happened, some vampires never made it with their sanity intact through the regret reflected in their human lives. Personally he saw little in Elena's short life for her to regret, but she found it all the same. He had held her while they had talked, long and hard. She had only temporarily been crippled by the pain._

_Much of her pain revolved around Jeremy. Elijah had calls every day from her brother asking about his sister. She was precious to him and he missed her very much. The last time he had seen her, she was dead and covered in blood. Elijah sensed that Jeremy needed to see for his own eyes that she was real and alive. And Elena needed to see that he loved her, forgave her. So, after being sure that she was strong enough, they brought Jeremy to her privately before bringing his new family. The two embraced, wept. Elijah stayed close by at first gauging Elena's response. Jeremy was the first human they brought close and they were uncertain of her response. Amazingly she never flickered. No red eyes, no hunger at all, only joy. Once again he was grateful that they had been given this second chance. He had seen vampires with years of experience unable to bring a human so close without killing them. He personally knew of several who had killed their entire families, lost in the hunger and lacking all control._

_After that it was a matter of exploring her abilities. She picked up all of it very quickly, but he could see that her psychic abilities would be her forte'. This came to her with no real effort at all. As a bonus, they discovered she did not even need a daylight ring. This was something she preferred to keep to herself for some reason. So she took to wearing a daylight ring from his family collection just for the joy of it. He had no idea what she had planned, or why, but he was sure the story would make him laugh when she finally accomplished her goal._

_Today, however, the Salvatores and Caroline were behind the Michaels' home and everyone was coming at Elena in turns. They were testing her strength and control, which made him laugh. Together he and Elena had been training. He knew how strong she was, and he couldn't be more proud. He was waiting around to see the looks on their faces when she stopped pretending or got angry, whichever came first._

XXXXXXXXXX

Elena was having the time of her life….or should that be unlife? She was unsure. Caroline, Damon and Stefan were all attempting to take her down. They surrounded her, all smiling, deciding to go easy on her at first. Stefan flew at her from the left. It was like watching a film in slow motion. She saw him coming at her from six miles away it seemed. She could have easily evaded and been long gone before he reached her, but decided to wait until right before impact to reach down, kiss his cheek and step stealthily out of the way.

Stefan landed face down ten feet away. "Okay, how did you do that? She kissed me and then she was gone!"

Elena laughed, delighted. She heard Elijah chuckle from the balcony above them.

While her attention was on Elijah, Damon took advantage and came up from behind. He intended to wrap his arms around her torso and neck, immobilizing her. He was faster than Stefan, stronger, probably due to the limited diet Stefan used. But Elena saw him coming all the same. More like three miles away, as compared to Stefan's six. She felt like a bull fighters as she stepped out of the way at the last half second and swatted him on the rear.

Fury bloomed in his blue eyes as he rounded on her and Elijah gave a shout of laughter from the balcony. It had happened so fast that no one else in the group knew what Elena had done. And Damon was livid. Since they were already playing like children, Elena stuck her tongue out at Damon and he came at her again….with the same result.

Caroline chose her moment well, propelling forward intending to take her legs out from under her. Elena saw this one coming as well and easily jumped up and out of the way. The acrobatics she had learned in cheerleading coming in handy as she landed in a handspring, bouncing to her feet. Damon and Caroline were left heaped together.

"Alright, so you're fast. But what about strong? Enough with the evasive techniques." That was Damon and he was still unconvinced about her being prepared for anything.

She was uncertain about this and said so. "I haven't learned to pull punches yet. I don't want to hurt anyone." Damon rolled his eyes and Caroline laughed.

It was Caroline that said "Elena, you've been a vampire for a month. The three of us have been doing this for years. We are bound to be stronger. I would say that the risk of broken bones would be yours." She was annoyed too.

"But Elijah said that it was different…" She looked up to the balcony, to Elijah for support.

"Bull shit." Damon had an ax to grind now.

Elijah snorted. Under his breath he said "Show them, Little One."

"Keep in mind that this was your idea…."

And so she did show them a bit of what she could do, if not what she was capable of. The three of them came at her at once, hands and fists and feet moving with what would once have been alarming speed. Caroline's fist contacted with her right cheek and she felt the pain radiate. Even then, she lost no footing and stood, immobile as stone for a moment. She pushed the radiating pain aside. Elena moved like a dancer, choosing the place that her impacting blows would land with these friends that she loved and would rather not injure at all. Her only goal was to make a point. One blow to Caroline's abdomen and Elena felt two ribs break, effectively stopping the lovely blonde for a few minutes. With Stefan, he came at her with two feet aimed at her abdomen. She grabbed a foot, twisted for the sound of a crunch and turned on Damon. She found that now she was angry, with him especially. He couldn't just take her word for it, always Damon, he had to push. With Damon she landed three blows, one to his chest, feeling the crunch of three ribs beneath a fist, and two to that lovely face. She felt the cheek bone on one side and the jaw on the other give under the open palmed blows. She still wasn't even really trying. She could only imagine the power Elijah held.

She left her guests lying on the ground in the back yard long enough to retrieve blood bags for both Caroline and Damon. She also stopped to retrieve a large jar of fresh pig's blood she had collected for Stefan from the butcher for just such an occasion.

Dropping the blood beside each of them she turned back to the house, she said quietly, "When you're all ready come inside for a drink and Elijah can explain what you wouldn't listen to before."

The three of them came inside a few minutes later, subdued. A bruise still bloomed over Damon's right cheek and he eyed her warily. For the first time, Elena learned that she was something new to most everyone she knew. She was young, and yet frighteningly strong and fast. She learned that he had not intended to ever change her with his blood. He had planned to ask one of her friends to help with that, when the time came. But fate had intervened there. Regardless of what had come before, all of them agreed that Elijah not making more children was wise. She could see in their faces that this was a new aspect of vampirism they had not considered….the idea that after a while they should not make others like them as they grew in strength and age. The idea that they might not have a choice about walking alone in time appealed not at all….

Restless, she went to the kitchen for more ice while the others asked Elijah questions she already knew the answers to. Damon followed her.

He seemed to be at a loss for words. The bruise was gone from his cheek.

She spoke because she was clearly the most troubled. "I….um…I lost my temper out there with you. I'm sorry." Still struggling with vampire emotions, her eyes were awash with tears.

"Oh hell, Elena," He wrapped his arms around her and she returned the embrace. "I'm an idiot. You know that. I just thought you might be overestimating what you could handle. Clearly I was wrong."

"I hurt you, all of you." She was sobbing now.

"That's our fault, not yours, girlie. You did try to stop us. And can I just say that you pack one hell of a punch?" Now she was laughing and crying. "We are all just going to be forced to reconsider what we've all known to be true about you before, that's all." They were quiet for a moment.

"If anyone can handle all of that, Elena, you can."

"Thank you for being my friend." She spoke it into his black silk shirt. She was thinking that some might be too proud to have a friend as strong and young as she was around. She didn't see what it cost Damon to say "I will always be your friend, Elena. In a world that forever changes, that never will."

Elena leaned back in his arms to tell him, "Oh and I'm sorry I marred your pretty face." He reared back laughing then and Elijah stepped around the corner.

"I believe I'll have to interrupt this now." But he was smiling.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

One evening a few months later Elena was working on the latest novel in the study. It had only taken a word released to the press about a misunderstanding and that she was in fact injured and recovering and suddenly she was back at her old life again….sort of. As if to illustrate that point, her cell phone buzzed. It was Stefan. The Boarding House would soon be under siege and Stefan had been unable to reach Elijah on his phone. Did she know where Elijah was?

Elena did know. Elijah was on a plane from Brazil back to the U.S.

"Damned werewolves. I'll be there in a few minutes, Stefan. Hold tight." She ignored the shouts of "No!" on the other end of the line and stuffed her phone in her back pocket. Mystic Falls was a forty five minute drive from Richmond. If she ran, she could get there faster, more like fifteen minutes.

Running had become one of her hobbies. She found that she could get lost in the rhythm and pattern of her stride and go for hours. She had not gone as far as she could, until her strength ran out, but had gone until she ran into water that first time she tried. She had picked a direction and gone, bounding over fences, single level homes and small trees at her top speed. Starting in Richmond, at their home, she had stopped when she reached Lake Michigan. Looking at her watch, she found she had been running for an hour. This was the first time she had gotten lost in the hunger though, which filled her with shame. A hiker had seen her, sitting quietly on a rock, looking out over the lake. He had approached thinking to ask for directions and lost a pint of blood for his effort. Elijah said that after the exertion it was an accomplishment that she hadn't killed him. The running cost her, then. So she drank before she left and when she stopped, to keep from hurting someone again.

She stopped silently just outside the woods surrounding the Salvatore Boarding House. She could hear the conversation of the intruders around her. One werewolf, a woman, was discussing strategy and her certainty that they would get the Salvatores at last. She mentioned "council orders" for their deaths and how she would finally be done with this mess. Elena saw red. There were twenty six werewolves around the Salvatore home behind various trees or other cover. She could smell them all. Starting with the woman, she began to disassemble their ranks in the swiftest manner available. Elijah had taught her to begin a battle by removing the command center first. It was like beheading the opposing force. None of them ever saw her coming and there were no screams. Almost clinically she found that reaching into chest cavities and removing hearts was easier from the front than the back, but either way did work. She found that when a werewolf was entirely transformed, it was a matter of getting just the right angle. Best to just let them pounce first but be close enough to reach up. And that the fur gets EVERYWHERE. Blech.

The entire effort took her about seven minutes. Without any command to move in or fall back the werewolves stood waiting, or pawed the ground in frustration. This made them easy prey. She kept one alive, a teenaged boy who had yet to transform, but she could smell that it wouldn't be long. Taking him by the scruff of the neck, she and the boy stood at the door of the Boarding House and she knocked.

Stefan opened the door to find Elena standing there with the boy, who was clearly terrified, and blood dripping from her hands, covering her clothes and the ends of her hair. She thought privately if she was going to have to do this kind of messy work, she might either braid it next time first or have her hair cut to keep it out of the way in the future. Stefan was speechless at her appearance for a moment.

"They're gone. All except this one. He's going to answer some questions for me." She shook the boy with one hand, holding him off the ground for a second. "Do you suppose I could get a quick meal?" Stefan went to the refrigerator with a grin.

"Gone?" That was Damon asking from the study with the liquor. Typical that he should be having a drink when they were facing death. The bite of a werewolf could kill a vampire.

"She took them out, Damon."

Elena motioned to the boy while she opened the blood bag. It was cold, but it would have to do. "He's not got long before he begins to change. I need answers." After a long swig, she looked at the boy, her irises expanding and contracting. "Tell me who ordered these attacks." The boy grinned. "You can't make me say nothing." The smug little snot actually crossed his arms over his chest. Without a word she pushed a little further and found an enchantment in his mind that protected the information. She found that most of these enchantments took some form or other. This one reminded her of a hedge of briar woven around the boy's mind. He would give up his life before he would ever be able to unwind the magic around him. Elena went about disconnecting the boy from the enchantment without concern for what would be left of him as long as she got her answers. She couldn't be concerned. This boy would've killed them all, given the chance. She saw that when she stepped into his head. With one final mental shove and a blink she pushed through it. This was another thing that Elijah had been teaching her. The boy's arms fell at his side and he wore a transfixed expression.

Behind her, Damon finally noticed what was happening, her appearance. "God, Elena. Fierce much?" Her eyes were the barbaric red of a hungry vampire, the darkened veins, but no fangs. The affect was haunting.

She rounded on him then. "These are the attacks that took Alaric from us, aren't they?" Alaric had been killed shortly after her marriage to Elijah. She never even had a chance to say goodbye. "You never told me that they had hits out on the both of you. Ric got caught in the middle, didn't he?" She already knew that Elijah must've known, or Stefan would not have called to ask for help.

Damon's face crumbled. He had hidden this from her long enough. "We didn't tell you then because there was nothing you could've done about it."

"I understand, it's okay." She wiped her bloodied, drying hands on the boy's t-shirt. "But there's plenty I can do now." She turned back on the boy. "Now, you little bastard, tell me about the leaders and the werewolf council."

Stefan said "We've tried that. They all have a spell on them that prevents…" But the boy was already spilling his guts, compelled to do whatever she asked. They wrote down names and then Elena was headed for the door. The pack leader was camped fifteen miles north waiting for the report from this group before sending in another. She would see that they never had that chance.

"Elena, it's nuts to just waltz into a werewolf camp on your own."

"Don't get in my way, Damon. Not tonight." She stepped up and kissed his cheek, turned and did the same to Stefan. "I'll be back soon. Please stay here." It gave her a certain amount of satisfaction to ask them to stay while she went about doing battle. Then she was gone.

"To hell with that." Damon headed out after her, asking Stefan to dispose of the boy werewolf's body.

XXXXXXXXXX

The werewolf leader was eating at a small table inside an aging RV. Before he could even wonder what was happening, he heard metal rip and a whole appeared in the roof above him. A small woman dropped through and dropped two hearts onto his nearly empty plate with a sickening wet sound.

"Guard one and Guard two. They died honorably." He had heard nothing at all, no alarm, no disturbance.

"I assume you're Jack?" The woman asked.

He did not stand and Elena decided she would not be offended. He only nodded, wordlessly. His eyes were glowing yellow, quietly studying her reddened eyes and veins. This was the night before a full moon. Some werewolves could change at this time, but all of them were stronger, more of a match for a vampire in their human form on this night than at any other time. Elena had enough strength that none of it mattered at all.

Coldly she looked into his eyes. "If you don't mind, I think I'll sit down." She pulled out a chair and sat down soundlessly crossing her legs. Jack wore the garb of a biker, black jacket, black jeans, long stringy hair. He wore a dozen tattoos that she could see just in the exposed areas.

She was a picture of contrast. She was small in build and stature. She had been wearing what had once been a pink sweater and figure hugging jeans. She wore running shoes. She had a sweetly serene face, and lovely dark hair that was tipped in blood. Her clothes were saturated in it.

"I could have ripped apart your entire camp by now." She was studying her fingernail. Jack fought a shudder of fear at the casual way she put it.

"I believe you." He told her. He was a natural leader, with genuine concern for those in his charge. His heart stuttered at the thought of the fifty or so people in this camp being lost to her small hands as his guards had been. All of these men and women were willing to die to accomplish their goals, but they should not have to.

"I have come to talk to you about the council orders requiring the deaths of the Salvatores….Jack." She was in a fury and the beast within her howled for blood. She knew that Ric was dead because of these people. Because of her. A yawning whole of pain could easily distract her, so she pushed it away grimly. She would deal with it later, Elijah would help her. Now was not the time, though.

"It's not up to me what the council orders. I just follow them."

She was standing again so fast that his long hair blew back. She was now leaning across the table then, leaving bloodied hand prints on the Formica. "I'm going to explain what I expect of you, Jack." She spat his name as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"I could compel you, but I won't. I want for you to remember every word we spoke so there are no excuses. I want for you to go back to your council. You tell them that it took me three deep breaths to break through the enchantment on your troops. And can I just say…A briar patch? Really? That's not even elegant. Just a jumbled mess of thorns and dirty magic." She laughed and it was chilling.

"You tell them that I have the names of every council member along with addresses and family members. I will not fight grunts anymore. I cleaned out your first battalion at the Boarding House before I came here. It took me seven minutes and will cost me nothing but a change of clothes. There will be no second attack tonight, Jack, or I will deliver your head to Jonah's door myself." Jonah Walker was the council leader. No one knew about Jonah…until now.

"This feud between a nation of werewolves and the vampires of Mystic Falls started twelve years ago because of mistakes I made." His eyes flickered in surprise. He thought she was a new player in all of this. "These attacks killed the only father I had left and have my friends fearing for their lives." Her red eyes filled with tears for a moment. "Although I would rather feel the satisfaction of ripping you apart with my bare hands, like your guards, I believe it would only result in more bloodshed. My father's heart would break at that thought, if he were here, of more death. Vampire or not, he was a man of peace. My love for him and his memory is the only reason you and the rest of your camp are still breathing. So I'm going to give your council the chance to see reason. Twelve years and my father's death are enough. We have all lost, here."

Jack privately thought she had a point.

"I don't have the influence to change the council's minds." He told her.

"That's a shame, Jack." She made a face of mocking pity. Her bloodied hand pointed at his left hand and the ring there. "I have your scent now. Tracking is a hobby of mine. There will be nowhere you could hide from me. If there's another attack on the Salvatore home or either of them at all, I'll come looking for you first, as my failed messenger. I suggest you say goodbye to your family before the next attack or the next full moon, whichever comes first. After I've visited with you, I'll be visiting the council members one at a time until there are none. Then your werewolf nation will scatter to the wind. This has gone on long enough. I started this and now I will end it, however you and your leaders choose. And that end starts tonight. "

"Tell them that they have no point of reference for what I'm capable of. They have never seen anything like me and will not even see me coming, just like you and your guards didn't. If they want a fight, I'll finish it for them. What sort of threat could one small woman be, after all?" She smiled coldly and then she was gone. From above, through the hole, he heard her voice hovering above the RV. "You have thirty minutes to clear your people out of here, Jack. Or I'll be back and deliver my message another way."

She waited quietly, sitting high in a tree a mile off while the camp scrambled below to gather and pack up. Damon found her there, crouched and waiting. Twenty feet below, he said quietly, "I think Jack will need a clean pair of shorts." She chuckled and dropped down beside him soundlessly. "Way to divide and conquer. We never could get close enough to leadership to reason with them."

She shrugged. "Elijah did a stint as a commander in the Roman army. He's been teaching me strategy." She didn't mention that it had been part of research for a book and that he had never intended she put anything he had taught her into practice.

"He's as old as that, huh?"

"Older."

Damon whistled and just shook his head. "Remind me not to piss either of you off." Then his eyes grew serious. "Actually, speaking of, there's something I need to tell you about Ric. When I'm done, you may feel the urge to get your hands dirty again." He was looking at the ground around his feet a hand clasped tensely at the nape of his neck.

"Damon. Tell me."

"About the night that Alaric died...it was my fault, Elena." He drew a deep ragged breath, breathing in remorse, and then breathing it out again. "I called him, asked for a hand. There were so many and I….." Elena interrupted him with a hand in the air. Pained blue eyes met calm and loving brown ones. "Damon, you loved him too. I know you did. You would've done everything in your power to stop them. No matter what happened, it wasn't your fault. I don't need details to know that."

She wrapped her arms around him and Damon felt peace seep into him for the first time in too long. She spoke into his chest. "You're my friend. I trust you. I love you. Stop hurting yourself with this guilt. You were not to blame. Alaric was a grown man and would've been here to help. No one could've stopped him. That was just who he was." Once more for good measure, _because bless his heart, he could be a little slow _she said again, "It was not your fault."

Damon found himself sagging with relief, not that she wouldn't take her anger out on him, but that he was free of the guilt at last. "You haven't changed so much as you think, Elena."

She only shrugged and turned away pointing herself toward the Boarding House again. As they walked together, Damon broke the silence asking "That threat you made, about tracking our pal Jack to the ends of the earth practically….was that true? Can you really track like that?"

Elena shrugged. "It's true in theory." She gave a little smile. "But that werewolf won't know that." Damon laughed, delighted.

"Elijah's been teaching you to play poker too, huh? That's some poker face you got going on there." Her grin widened and she laughed too.

Her phone buzzed in her back pocket. Grimacing at her bloody hands, Damon retrieved it for her with a devilish grin reaching into her jeans. He answered it and put it up to her ear.

"Hi, there. Safe flight?"

"Yeah, I have had my hands full. Sorry about that."

"Right. Will you take a taxi? Good. You'll actually beat me there."

"No, I've been out playing with Damon and Stefan. I'll show you what happened I get home." Elena looked up into Damon's eyes, with a grin. "Yes, I know. Forever the drama."

She hung up with Elijah and Damon put the phone back in her pocket.

"Um, I won't ask how you will "show" him. I think the answer would creep me out. But I do need to know if this story will be edited for the faint of heart?" Damon figured he needed to know what story they were going to go with.

Elena grinned. "No, he and I don't lie to one another. Ever. He'll grumble and fuss, and then he'll pick apart my strategy and tell me how he would've done it. And then I'll be more efficient next time." She shrugged.

"I take it back Elena. You have changed." Because he would've lied to avoid what she described and he knew ten years ago, she would have too.

"Love does that, Damon."

"So, how about a run to your place? I could use a shower and another bag from your fridge before the run home."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Elena planned to make her way home with as much haste as she could. First, she desperately needed a shower, a change of clothes (a pair of sweat pants and t shirt from Damon and Stefan) and a quick meal. She would keep her running shoes, even if they were soaked in werewolf blood. She refused to run barefoot like some savage.

Finished with her shower, trying to hurry, she noticed right away the looks the guys gave her after the night's events. Damon had filled Stefan in on what went down at the werewolf camp while she was in the shower. They were both eyeing her silently while she drank from the bag. She started to feel like a freak….among vampires, that was saying something.

"Okay, guys. Out with it."

Stefan looked uncomfortable. "Damon filled me in and we were discussing the changes in you, Elena. You don't see it, but you really are scary as hell." Leave it to Stefan to cut to the chase.

Elena's heart broke just a bit. She didn't want to admit she had heard their conversation from the shower. Over the shower. That would scare them more. The bathroom was in the other wing of the Boarding House. "I see where this is going." Okay, she was hurt more than just a bit. She pulled out her poker face. "I won't come into your home again. I won't be back here. No one should be afraid in their own home."

"Elena! No one said anything about…."

"You think I'm dangerous. A loose cannon. Self-preservation being an instinct, friends or no friends….I get it." They wore mirrored expressions of horror. She was quoting both of them. "Elijah prepared me for this too, you see. Give it few years and maybe you'll be more comfortable with what I've become. Either way, I won't step foot into your home again. You don't have to ask Bonnie for a spell to keep me out." That part had hurt especially. "I guess it's just as well that you had this conversation while I was around to hear it, or I might've come back, unaware that I was unwelcome." She was hurting and angry. But not violent. Hey guys. Elena. Is. Upset. But. Still. Not. Killing. People.…..morons.

Part of her wanted to point out that they had both scared the hell out of her in the beginning when she was human. She had trusted them anyway….but she didn't. You can't make people trust you. Elijah's favorite saying. (She asked Elijah when he was sure she had trusted him. At first he said only that it took a while. Later he admitted- "When you kissed me for the first time." Then a long argument had ensued about who had actually kissed who that first time.)

She stepped in close to Stefan, not intending to move so fast that he didn't see her coming, but he jumped when she stopped close to him all the same. She carefully, slowly leaned in and kissed his cheek. More slowly, self-conscious, she approached Damon and hugged him. She kissed his cheek as well. "Elena…" her name was a strangled sound from him. She reached up and patted Damon's cheek. "So much for friends in a changing world, right?" She couldn't help the bitterness or the parting shot.

"I love you both. I'm glad I had the chance to make this right. Please call Elijah if they come here again, or make any threats. He and I will end them if they do, scary or not."

And then she was gone.

Crying and running was a challenge. It made it hard to see where you were going. Her phone buzzed in her back pocket all the way home, but she planned on getting a new one now. She wouldn't do this anymore. It hurt too much.

She stopped on her front porch and was sobbing, bent over with her hands on her knees. Elijah came and wrapped his arms around her and just let her cry. After a bit, he whispered in her ear "I can kill them both for you, if you like…." And she had laughed, and cried and she was so glad that she had him and he loved her no matter what. And her friends could all go to hell for all she cared right now.

There were no more visits; except from Jeremy who thought that everyone had "lost their freakin' minds". Jer blamed her for getting so upset, and the guys for thinking she was going to go rogue and kill everybody. She changed her phone the next day, after the werewolf problem. Only Jeremy, Elijah and her editor, Terry had the number. It stayed that way for months.

She was determined that she would go about her life like this hadn't happened.

XXXXXXXXXX

Elijah slept. He looked younger in sleep than at any other time. Something about three thousand years looking back out of thirty year old eyes was unmistakable. He had been turned somewhere around thirty two or so, he said they marked birthdays differently back then, so he was unsure of his age at his death. They had been practicing various skills and he wanted very much to see what she had done with the werewolves. She had been too upset to try it at first, but now the sting was gone and she was excited to be practicing what Elijah liked to call dream walking again. He didn't know she was coming.

She saw his sleeping mind as a wall. She changed the wall and added a door. Closing her eyes, she pictured herself walking through the door. Here she was, back at the lake where she had walked with Elijah when she was eighteen. She remembered quaking in her boots at him back then. But he never hurt her, not really.

She found him staring out across the water. He was younger. Elijah had told her once that people tend to picture themselves in dreams as younger than they really are. She was walking around as her eighteen year old self. He looked about twenty five. There were no lines around his eyes and he had a swagger of youth that she didn't see in him today. When she had asked about this time in his life, he said that twenty five was before life had broken him.

She came up behind him and ran a hand through his hair.

"Hi."

"Oh, Elena. What a nice surprise." A warm smile for her. God how she loved him.

"Would you like to watch the werewolves?"

"I would, very much. But can I show you something first?"

"Of course."

She gave over control of the dream and found herself standing in her living room. Bonnie, Stefan, Damon, Caroline were all crying. They stood alone and wept, or wept together. "What is this, Elijah?"

"This is the day you died, Elena." He took her hand. "They gathered here, around you, around us. They came in quietly and never demanded, never asked. There had been news reports about the local writer who died in a mysterious car crash."

There was a bustle as Jeremy came through the front door shouting and crying. Damon and Stefan tried to stop him, but he headed up the stairs bellowing that he would see his sister. She followed them. She saw herself then, a broken shell on the bed. Elijah covered in blood, speechless and shattered. She saw Elijah and Jeremy, brothers, weeping together. And then she saw Damon come in, weeping equally as much, embracing Elijah also as they wept together in their mutual grief. Elijah walked around and brought her with him, so that they could see Damon's ravaged face as he looked down at her broken body.

"He loves you, little one." This was what he wanted her to see. "I even thought at the time that perhaps he loves you as much as I do." The dream froze, but Elena and Elijah were free to move around. Stefan was in the hallway, also weeping.

"Why are you showing me this, Elijah?"

"Because you are hurting, even now, due to this. Those werewolves couldn't touch you, but your friends left you wounded and raw. You don't want me to know, and you don't talk about it, but I see. I can afford to be generous. Of all of them, it's me that you chose. Regardless of what you overheard, they love you. And quite frankly, I think it's unfair for you to cut Bonnie and Caroline out of your life for something the Salvatores did. Those ladies have known you since childhood and call me every few days to complain that you won't talk to them. Just because two impulsive boys think you might not be able to control yourself, doesn't mean that your best friends in the world would desert you as well. You've cut them all out so that they can't hurt you when, if nothing else, they could love you through this."

He kissed her cheek. "And isn't the cutting someone out for fear of their power the same as what the Salvatores did to you? They were working out how to protect themselves from your hurting them, should it ever become necessary."

She hung her head.

"It just hurts too much, Elijah, for them to be afraid of me. I understand now why you were so upset when you thought I was afraid of you. It's just that now I find my best friends, even other vampires, afraid. It's all so new and so very painful coming from people who know me."

"It's your decision, my heart. You do what you decide. I just wanted you to see what I saw." He kissed her again and smiled.

"Will you show me the werewolves now? I know you were magnificent. I just want to see it for myself."

And so she showed him her dance through the wolves in the woods around the Boarding House. She showed him the confrontation with Jack. He saw her in all her rabid glory and laughed with delight. She asked him about the fact that her eyes were red, her face lined, but no fangs during her time with Jack. She had not heard or seen that from anyone else.

"That is unusual. It's an indicator of great emotion in older vampires. Rebekah did that a great deal. It is quite haunting, isn't it? Very beautiful." She smiled.

Then he watched her drop from the tree twenty feet to talk with Damon, he grinned.

"You modeled that after your favorite vampire movie character, didn't you?" She laughed at how well he knew her.

She had. Elena had even landed the same way, on the balls of her feet, with her knees bent and one hand to the ground. Except that Elena could now do it in real life. "All I need now is a black patent leather body suit and a black leather trench." She already had the combat boots, she thought with a grin.

"I can have them here by tomorrow if you promise to wear them for me…."

"You really are very kinky." He grinned in response. _Yes._ _Yes he was_.

They sat together by the lake again discussing it all, including strategy and performance. Elijah was still caught up in the confrontation with Jack. "I do have to say that my favorite part of what I saw was the look on Jack's face when you dropped those two hearts onto his plate. Very intimidating. Nicely done."

"Has there been any activity on that end?" She couldn't bring herself to ask if the guys had called.

"Nothing. Silence. I think the Werewolf Council has heard your request and decided to honor it." Young Elijah couldn't say it without busting into a snorting laugh. "Like they had much choice."

XXXXXXXXXX

Elena gathered her nerve and called Bonnie from the house phone. She still wasn't willing to distribute the cell phone number to anyone yet. Baby steps.

Bonnie seemed pleased and surprised to hear from her. She said, yes, she'd love to meet her for lunch later that day.

And so it began. Elena sat with Bonnie eating French fries and talking about old times and pretending that they had talked more recently than six or seven months ago. Elena waited to smell fear in her friend, steeling her heart against it, but there was none. After an hour, two drinks each and a plate of shared French fries, Bonnie said only "I have missed you." Her hazel eyes had filled with tears and Elena's had matched them, tear for tear.

"I'm so sorry." Elena had cried over her friend's hands. Bonnie smiled through the tears. "We're okay now, aren't we?" Elena could only smile and nod.

And so Elena reached out to Caroline in much the same way. Caroline, being Caroline, was much more vocal about the whole thing and mad as hell. They met at The Grille in Mystic Falls because Caroline still lived there and it was pretty much the only game in town for restaurants.

"So nearly six months without a word. God. Elena. I thought we were friends." Caroline was railing at her. No fear here either. If anything, Elena was the one who should be afraid with all the fussing she was getting.

"I know, Caroline. I think it's all the changes. I thought everyone was waiting for me to go on a murdering spree. Everyone was afraid of me and I couldn't be trusted…..that's the way I felt. I was hurt and angry. Did I tell you I went running and ended up at the banks of Lake Michigan in an hour?" She reached across the table and took her friend's hand. "Too much too fast, I think. I'm sorry."

Caroline appeared mollified. "It's my turn to say sorry. I know I wasn't supposed to, but I called them." Caroline was looking at the door.

Damon walked in and Elena stood up. "I can forgive you, but I won't trust you again any time soon." She hugged her friend's neck and left her.

Elena walked right back out of The Grille. Damon was at the door and she just pushed past him, using her shoulder to move him out of her way.

"Elena, please." On closer inspection, he looked ragged around the edges. Since when did Damon look ragged? He was thinner, and there were lines in his face. Was he ill? She forced herself not to care.

"Careful, Damon. It's best not to piss me off."

And then she was gone.

The next morning Elijah went to get the paper and returned with a grin. "Elena, honey, there's a package on the doorstep for you. I didn't bring it in, wasn't sure if you'd want me to. But you might go check the expiration date."

She found Damon asleep on their porch swing. Considering the opportunity this posed, she took it with both hands. Let him be afraid, damn it.

She pictured the wall. Damon's was taller than Elijah's wall for some reason, and darker. She built the door, with a pretty brass knob because it seemed to fit. She turned the knob and stepped into Damon's dream.

He was sitting on the window seat in her room from when she was a teenager. The bed was stripped and everything was gone. He had a brown teddy bear of hers in his hands. He looked up at her and didn't recognize her as anything more than part of his dream. She could control that, too, according to Elijah. At any point she could identify herself and the dreamer would recognize her as reality. But she wasn't going to do that.

"You won't talk to me." Damon told her.

"No. I know. I'm angry and hurt." She shrugged and sat on the bed in front of him.

"You won't let me make it right."

"What could you say, Damon, that would be the truth?"

His eyes filled with tears. "I could tell you that I love you. That I've always loved you. Even when you married someone else."

Her eyes filled too, then. This was the last thing she would want for him. "If I could free you from feeling this way, would you want that, Damon?"

"Free me? You mean I wouldn't love you anymore?"

"Right."

"No. You brought me back to my humanity. I don't want that gone."

"I could make you want to let me go."

"No, I don't want that either." He looked up into her face. "What I want is for you to forgive me. Forgive Stefan too. We were bull shitting. We didn't mean any of it. All of it conjecture and bull shit. It was a guy conversation, badly timed, but just guy stuff. We never thought you would actually hurt any of us. It was one of those "who would win if Big Foot and a werewolf got into a fight" kind of conversations." He looked down again.

"But you hate me. I saw it in your eyes yesterday. Ten years ago I would've charmed and harassed you until you talked to me. I can't do that anymore. You won't let me near you."

His dream self was also ragged around the edges like he had been at The Grille.

"Damon, when did you eat last?"

"I can't eat. Elena hates me. She died and we all lost her, then she came back, but she hates me. So now I am the only one that really lost her." He was back to holding the bear in his hands again.

Oh. My. God. He had stopped eating because of this. She went to him wrapping her arms around his shoulders in the dream. He sighed. "Not real. Nice, but not real because Real Elena hates me."

Quietly she stepped back through his door and found, thankfully, that he was still asleep.

She rushed upstairs, got dressed and pulled her hair back. With a nod at Elijah, she went back to the porch. She was carrying a bag of blood and a glass of bourbon. Damon was still sleeping.

She sat on the ground in front of the swing and shook it just a bit. He didn't stir. Evidently he wasn't sleeping well, either.

She shook his shoulder. "Damon?"

Blue eyes flashed open. He tried to sit up, but her sitting on the ground in front of the swing prevented it, as she had known it would. His knees went where she was sitting. He would skull her if he tried sitting up right now.

She smiled at him and he looked wary. "I brought you breakfast." Blood in one hand and bourbon in the other.

"Elena, listen." He was trying to put his mind back together and get a word in before she threw him out.

"It's okay Damon." His eyes didn't seem able to focus. He looked like a lost boy for a minute.

"I got upset. Vampire emotions. I'm still dealing. I'm sorry I was so angry with you." She kissed his cheek, and then smoothed his hair.

"You look like hell, my old friend. Here. Eat. There's more where that came from."

She moved away so he could sit up.

Not one to just take something at face value, Damon asked "You looked mad enough to murder yesterday and today you're feeding me breakfast?"

"Elijah pointed out some things to me not too long ago. They sunk in finally. And I was hurt, not really mad. It hurt to think that the people I loved were afraid of me. When I heard it from you two, I thought everyone felt that way and no one had had the nerve to say it. Now, I see that even the two of you didn't feel that way. I jumped to conclusions. I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm an idiot."

She took a step toward the door and he moved very quickly to keep her from getting away into the house. He had his arms wrapped around her. "Yes, you are an idiot." He swallowed over and over.

Leaning close to her ear, he said "Please don't do ever do that to me again. I can take a lot, but I can't take you hating me. Just talk to me and _I'll_ be fine, even if you're yelling, okay?"

She nodded into his shoulder.

"Can I tell you a secret?" She was smiling. He needed this, for her to trust him with something.

"You can tell me anything. You should know that."

"Come here. I'll show you." She took his hand and stepped into the sun. They went out far into the yard. It was a beautiful day.

She said only, "This is very cool. Watch."

She reached down and started to wiggle the daylight ring off of her hand. He was horrified. "Oh God, Elena. Stop! No!" He was trying to take her hand, to stop her. But she put the ring in it his palm and smiled at him, putting a finger to her lips.

No fire, no burning. Nothing. She could walk freely in the sun like any human.

"Elijah is the only other person who knows." Damon was amazed.

And then he reached out as if to throttle her. "You are a crazy woman, I swear. You scared me shitless. I thought that you were trying to….What the hell? Elijah clearly needs a tighter leash for you. Doing that to someone…good lord. What the hell?"

His hands wrapped loosely around her neck. She kissed the tip of his nose and laughed with real joy.

Considering that personality traits get amplified when a person turns, she asked Elijah much later what he thought had been amplified in her. He pointed to this moment and said. "Your compassion, Elena. Your heart will always define you. Now, more than ever."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

That sound outside the window was driving her absolutely nuts. It had gone on for hours. "Rek-rek-rek-rek." Followed closely by "Thump, thump, thump."

She had read the same line on her computer screen twelve times, still searching for the character's next direction. _What in hell was that sound, anyway?_

Elijah was in town, looking at some office space for something or other. He told her what he was doing, and why, if she asked. But the ups and downs of the business world failed to capture her interest. She could be tearing people apart on her computer screen, after all. So she was embarrassed to admit she didn't know when he would be home, either. If she called to ask him, he would tell her again, but that would also be admitting that she didn't listen to him. So she would investigate "the rek-rek" herself.

When she looked opened the blinds, she was surprised to find a greyish brown streak throwing itself at the window. The sounds grew louder now, calling through the daylight silence. "REK-REK-REK"

It was bird. A suicidal bird. The poor thing was going to kill itself against her window.

She headed downstairs and out the patio door. She found the bird sitting on the deck next to a chair, watching her closely. The bird was grey and brown by turns in large patches across its back, legs and tail feathers. Its neck was covered by a wide white band. There was also white around both eyes, followed closely by a yellow patch of skin all the way around, then the eyes themselves were red. Elena suspected it was a falcon, but the type, she didn't recognize. She knew very little about birds, really. But this one was really beautiful and the rek-rek-rek sounds had stopped, at least.

Testing the water, Elena stepped up close and sat in the chair near the bird. Seemingly convinced of its own superiority, the bird tipped its head to her regally.

"You are really beautiful." The bird turned its head to her and inclined its head…in acknowledgement maybe? How strange. She sat for another moment and then headed back inside. When she closed the door, the thumping started again. This time it was the patio door. The great bird brain was throwing itself against the door now.

She turned and opened the door and the bird flew in, landing on the back of a chair. Elena had just obtained a wild bird as a house guest apparently.

She held her arm up to the thing, as she had seen falconers on TV do and the bird immediately stepped up and softly nuzzled her shoulder with its beak. She was learning to take things in stride, as a new vampire. There was something new every week, it seemed. But this, well, it was strange and a little bit unsettling in ways that running for hours and drinking warm blood from a coffee cup was not.

She ran a finger across the lovely, regal head, carefully avoiding the beak, although the bird did not make any threatening movements.

She headed upstairs with her new friend to do some research. She opened the window beside her desk and removed the screen. The bird immediately seemed to understand that this was done for its sake and settled there.

She found that the bird actually was a Peregrine falcon. Considering its size, it could only be female, who were the larger of both genders for this animal. She had no idea why it had settled there in her office and refused to leave, but she became accustomed to it after a while and forgot it was there. She was back to tapping keys, working furiously. She thought for a moment that she was hungry, but she didn't want to walk away. She was in the middle of a very tense scene with a small boy and his darkest fear. She needed to finish this and then she'd get food. It was then that something dropped onto the desk beside her. It was a fresh rabbit. The falcon had hunted for her. She had thought about being hungry, and the bird had responded.

Elena started then to suspect then that this was definitely more vampirey tricks. She took the catch and made over it, drinking a bit of the blood and the bird's feathers stood on end as she preened. _God, how does Stefan eat rabbit? Ptewey!_ But she said aloud nothing of the sort. She suspected the bird understood her words.

The bird then turned her head toward the open window, as if listening, or watching something far off, then she took to the air, disappearing.

A few seconds later, an image blossomed in her head of a dark man headed up her mile long drive way on foot at a fast rate. The image was rimmed in swirling colors as the face accompanying the dark head came into clear resolution. It was Damon. She was seeing her old friend through her new friend's eyes. And she, the falcon, was on the attack swooping low, very fast (Elena knew from her research that they could dive at up to sixty miles per hour) and at the last few moments swinging her large, strong claws under her. "Wait!" Elena called and the bird changed direction at the last possible second leaving Damon ducking and swatting the air. "To me, please." She said it to the air, but knew the falcon heard. A minute later the bird was perched again on her windowsill. She ran a finger along the bird's breast, amazed. "How wonderful and strong and fierce you are, my new lady friend. You must have a name…..May I call you Ember? Your eyes remind me of fire." The falcon turned and looked out the window, surveying, patrolling.

Then her door bell pealed. She suspected people wouldn't be surprising her at home anymore. She had just gained wings and an extra set of eyes, after all.

She answered the door and welcomed Damon inside. Ember had followed her, looking from the railing on the second floor.

"You've gained yourself a familiar. That thing just tried to take my head off."

"Sorry about that. We're newly acquainted and I didn't know what she had planned until the last few moments." She held up her arm and the falcon landed on her bare skin. "This is Ember."

"I had one of those years ago. A crow. I set him free eventually, but he was a lot of fun. Very creepy." He grinned his "creepy" grin and she laughed.

"Do they usually just appear?"

"No, I had to go looking for mine. What do you mean by "just appear"?"

She told him what had happened that morning and he was amazed. "Leave it to you to do things differently than everyone else…." She just shrugged.

"I wish this was a social call, but it's not exactly, Elena. I just got off the phone with Stefan. I was in town and I headed right over because this concerns you. Do you remember your friend Jack?"

Damon filled her in. Jack had appeared with a group of werewolves on Salvatore land an hour ago, but only Jack approached the house and in broad daylight. There was no violence or threats, Jack appeared to want to negotiate somehow. He was asking for the female vampire…the scary one.

"I guess that would definitely be me."

Damon chuckled at her discomfort.

Elena dressed in her running clothes. Her running tended to be faster and more violent as time went by. She had found that her clothes became ripped and torn very quickly at the speeds she used, and running shoes didn't hold up for long. Anything that dangled was a potential hazard to whatever might catch on her, pulling down small trees, fences. So her garb had adjusted over time. She wore black leather pants and a tight black tank with a Harley symbol on it. Her shoes were combat boots with a three inch thick wide and sturdy heel. Her hair was tightly braided into two braids, one on each side of her head. She had started out with her hair loose, went to French braids, and now this. The closer and tighter it was, the less likely to catch on something and pull.

Damon whistled in appreciation when he saw her and grinned evilly. She wagged a finger at him and smiled back.

The three of them headed out. Three because she was figuring out that Ember was her new constant companion. The fifteen minute run was over too quickly for Elena's taste. She didn't relish another confrontation with the pack leader. She really had been doing a very good job of forgetting the entire incident, actually. So this reminder, in the form of a meeting with Jack wasn't something she would relish any time soon.

She spotted easily the aging RV that had been Jack's a little less than a year ago. It was parked just inside the property line that belonged to the Salvatore Boarding House. There were ten other RV's also parked, lined along the property with no movement whatsoever from the entire group. She could smell the tension in the air. Damon wasn't letting her go by herself this time, so they both approached Jack's RV.

She motioned to Ember to wait for her on the roof of the RV. The falcon would be her lookout so to speak, if this was a trap. The bird seemed to understand that she was somehow important and her feathers fluffed a bit.

She knocked on the door for a change and Jack answered immediately. His eyes widened warily when he saw her and her companion. Jack backed up making room for both of them to enter wordlessly. She had asked Elijah why she hadn't needed an invitation to meet with Jack the first time and he explained that the RV was a temporary housing, not a home. For the same reason she wouldn't need an invitation for hotel rooms either.

"What's brought you back here, Jack?" She had crossed her arms across her chest.

"Listen, do you have a name, by any chance?"

"I do. I'm Elena. This is my friend Damon Salvatore."

"I appreciate very much you're seeing me, both of you." Jack settled into his seat on the makeshift couch. He looked older than when she had seen him last. Probably thirty, but who knew how werewolves aged, so she couldn't be sure. There was new gray in his hair and lines in his face that hadn't been there a year ago. His face was clean shaven, that was new, and his hair was short now….also new.

"What is this about, Jack? Is your council rethinking their position of peace?"

"No, Elena. I'm not here on their behalf at all." Already tense, this surprised her and she leaned forward in her seat, too swiftly evidently. Jack tensed and recoiled from her proximity in the confined space.

"Why are you and your people here then, Jack?"

"I'm here to ask for your help, Elena." This surprised her. "I'm hoping you'll help us where the council won't."

"Explain."

Jack took a deep breath looking for how to give this strange woman the Reader's Digest version of what had happened and what he needed.

"A year ago we were new to the area. We come from out west and had been brought here by the council. They gave us a protection spell of some kind and sent us out to kill vampires in Mystic Falls, Virginia. And then you happened." He shrugged for a minute.

"I had expected we would be released and return out west to our lives. Things didn't turn out that way for us. The spell that protected us also bound us to this area. We can't leave. I've asked the council to remove the spell for over a year, but they always refused. I found out last week that the reason they have always refused is because of the fact that they don't know how to release us. The magic that the witches working with the council used is too strong. I've been to every witch and cheap fortune teller for a one hundred mile radius. No one can undo it. We need to be gone from here, and we can't leave."

"What happens when you try to leave?" Damon asked.

"Engines fail, tires blow, we've tried booking flights and every flight we're on gets cancelled. I've tried walking out and ended up arrested for vagrancy….a dozen times, right before I hit the western Virginia state border."

What Jack described was some very powerful magic indeed. She remembered the briar patch in that boy's mind. It would infiltrate everything eventually, if not controlled or removed.

"Which comes to why I needed to come here with my pack." He looked to Elena then. "You are apparently the only creature walking around that can overpower this spell."

Elena thought of what was left of that boy's mind after she had torn the spell out by the roots. She didn't want to ruin Jack's hope, so she kept that image to herself for a moment.

She sat back in her seat. She needed to know if the risk was important enough to take. "Why is it so important to you to leave here, Jack?" Damon was watching her very closely, faintly surprised that she was asking questions rather than just jumping in to help as he had expected.

"I thought you might ask that." Jack looked down the hallway and called out to someone. A small, pale girl came around the corner. Her eyes were sunken, her skin gray. Elena smelled death on her, and soon. She appeared to be about eight.

"Elena, this is my daughter, Millicent."

The little girl made a face. "I'm Milla, Daddy." She protested in a high, sweet little voice and Elena's heart broke.

"Yes, sweets, I know. Thank you. You can go play now."

The little girl looked at her curiously. "Can I sit with the lady instead?"

Jack turned wide, frightened eyes on Elena. Elena looked at him and winked. She scooted over on the couch, making space between herself and the arm of the couch closest to Jack. Patting the couch in invitation, she found the space filled very quickly by a small, frail piece of humanity.

Milla sat beside her with a huge, innocent smile.

Jack appeared to gather himself and continued. "Milla has," Milla interrupted then. "Can I say it Daddy?"

Jack's eyes filled with tears and he said "Of course you can, sweetheart."

Milla appeared very proud as she announced "I have ETP- ALL. Early T-cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia"

"Wow, that's a mouth full for such a little one." Elena patted her hand, fighting tears of her own. "You did that very well, Milla."

Jack started to continue, "Milla's form of leukemia…," Elena held up a hand. "I understand Jack. It's the most viscous, the most aggressive."

There was surprise in the werewolf's face for Elena's knowledge. She just smiled. "I read a lot." At this point Damon laughed out loud at her understatement.

"Alright. So, there's a clinic in New Mexico that can help Milla. But if we can't get there, she can't get treatment." Jack looked haggard as he looked at Elena. "Will you help us?"

"Jack, let me make a couple of calls. I'll need back up for this….for so many." She looked at the little girl and a plan started to formulate. "Damon. If we're going to do what I'm thinking , we'll need about four rooms in the Boarding House and to be barricaded for twenty four hours. Can you handle that?" He answered immediately without hesitation "Anything for you, Elena." Then Damon read her mind. "You wouldn't!" It would be a risk. But there would be a big payoff if it worked.

"You know I would, old friend."

Jack didn't understand, but he had hope for the first time in months.

"One last question, Jack. Will the council be annoyed when you break free of this enchantment? They had to know what they were doing when they had that spell planted….the long term effects."

"Yes, I think they will be."

She smiled.

"I'm going to step out and make two phone calls. If they go the way I'm hoping, we'll all be helping you very soon. All of you."

Milla smiled at her.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Jack watched the bustle that resulted from her phone calls. He saw two cars arrive, almost simultaneously. One was a BMW with a stock broker in it. When he approached, Elena went immediately to him and spoke animatedly. Jack thought of him as Wall Street. Of all he was seeing here today, Wall Street didn't fit the most. He couldn't hear what they were talking about, and the conversation was so fast, so excited that he could gather nothing from expressions either. When they were done, the two shared a kiss, as two long acquainted lovers would share. Wall Street and the vicious biker chic vampire. Strange combination. But who was he to judge? It was no skin off his ass. **

**Milla was sitting at the open door, also watching the activity and his heart ached at how she had declined over the last few months. She should be playing with kittens and Barbies, not memorizing long names for childhood cancer and watching her father beg dangerous strangers for help. He was placing the entire pack in danger with this last ditch effort to break free. They had all agreed with him that it was necessary, but he would only allow it if the risk was entirely his. They all stayed in their RVs while the vampires were here, and would until they pulled out of Virginia, if possible.**

** The other car was a small VW bug and a lovely dark skinned woman drove it. She had long, flowing hair and power snapped all around her. He could smell it on the wind. A witch. She left her car smiling and went to the male vampire, Salvatore, laughing and hugging him. She then went to biker chick, hugging her. More animated talking. It appeared that this Elena snapped her fingers and vampires and witches came running. A leader he supposed. He could respect that. What he didn't understand was why she would make such effort for them. That, he was wary of.**

**Jack stood as the group approached him. He could afford to pay her some respect if it would save his daughter's life. "Jack, this is my husband, Elijah." Husband? Wow. He wondered how Wall Street and biker chick got together and what did Wall Street think of being married to a vampire. "And this is Bonnie, the strongest witch I know." The witch had lovely hazel eyes with flecks of yellow dancing and moving. He didn't know that he had ever seen such latent power, even in the ones who placed the spell on his pack.**

Elena sat with Jack. Too often she had been the one who was left in the dark while others planned. She wanted full disclosure for Jack and his little girl, Jack's pack. He deserved that much respect for having the courage to come here.

She sat on the ground beside him. He offered her his chair, but she refused.

"Jack, I want for us to go over some things before everything starts happening. I want to explain so that there are no surprises for you. No mysteries. Everything that we do would require your permission."

After watching them work, unloading things from the witch's car, gathering others. He could see the effort involved in whatever they were planning. "Before you tell me, help me to understand why you would help us, Elena. I can see the group you command, but why bother, exactly when werewolves killed your father?"

"Well, you don't dance around things, do you? Just like Stefan. Alright, here it is. She," Elena pointed at Milla behind the screen, as she sat watching everyone, transfixed. "is why I will help you. Well, that and the fact that it will piss off the werewolf council and bring them down a notch or two. But if there was no council, I would still help you. And I don't command anything. These are my friends and family, here. We have vampires, a witch, a werewolf and a couple of humans wandering around here. They are here because they want to be."

"As for my adopted father, he never wanted to be a vampire. He's happy where he is. He visits Jeremy on a regular basis and sent me that message. I miss him, but I'm making it."

She gave Jack a minute to absorb that.

"You are a very strange creature, Elena."

"You have no idea, Jack." They grinned at each other.

"Alright, the plan is twofold. We are setting up in the back yard to take down the spell. I know it can be done, because I've done it once before, but it killed the person I removed it from, Jack. I have Bonnie here to help me while we take it down for your pack all at once, rather than individually. We won't let anything happen and are prepared to find another way if this won't work but will not be hurting anyone tonight."

"Could you try it on one of us? If it works, then do it for the group? Would that be safer?"

"That first person would be at great risk, Jack."

"You will do it on me first, then." But Elena shook her head. "Jack, Milla will need you."

"Milla needs to be free." His mind was made up.

Elena left that one alone.

"The other part of the plan involves Milla directly." Jack turned wary eyes on Elena. "I'm going to let you in on a vampire secret, Jack. Vampire blood can heal humans." Jack's eyes went wide as he turned and looked at his little girl. "How long have they given her, Jack?"

"Six months. And that's with the treatments that I can't get for her yet. Without them, it's uncertain. Two months, maybe."

"Her heart is strong." Jack looked at her. "I hear it from here."

"So, Jack, since Milla has a cancer of the bone marrow and blood, and we're vampires, I think we can help her. But there are risks involved and I want to explain that as well."

"Risks?" Jack didn't like the sound of that at all.

"Right. The blood will be in her body for twenty four hours. During that time it will be working to heal her. If something happens and she were to die while that blood is still present…" Elena hesitated. "Jack, I'm sitting here as a result of just such a set of circumstances."

Jack looked confused.

"My husband was a vampire. I was human. I was accidentally exposed to his blood. There was a car wreck. Here I am."

"Your husband now?" _I'll be damned. Wall Street is a vampire too. _Elena nodded.

Jack absorbed what she was saying about Milla. "So you want to give her some of your blood and see if it heals her. But that's why you want to barricade the Salvatore home for twenty four hours. To protect Milla while the blood is still in her body."

Elena smiled and nodded. "But only with your permission. And since these two things will be going on concurrently, you would have to trust us to keep Milla safe inside while we are attempting to remove spells in the back yard."

Jack appeared to be considering. So Elena continued. "I will tell you that I have personally been on the brink of death and vamp blood saved me on a number of occasions. ETP-ALL is an illness at the DNA level though, so I don't know for certain how deeply the blood will reach, but if it does heal her, it will adjust her DNA as well. This could mean that, if she ever activates the curse, she might be one helluva werewolf. I don't know. Elijah and I are speculating there. And if the blood won't repair DNA, it will help her get _better_ with time. So I see it as a win-win, but this is your decision."

"You're really willing to bleed for my little girl."

"Totally."

"Werewolf tradition would make you one of ours, if you did that. Sharing blood would make you family. You ready for that?" Elena laughed.

"I'm not going to be called into battle, am I?" Considering that a werewolf's natural enemy was vampires that could be _awkward_.

"Not at all, but it would make you and Milla family."

Elena could always use more family. She smiled. "Like a god-daughter?"

"Yes, exactly like that."

"One last question. Who will be guarding my little girl while I can't?" Jack's concern was understandable.

"Elijah. Oh, and Ember."

"Have I met Ember?" Elena raised her arm and a falcon landed on her arm. "You have now. She is my second set of eyes. So I can be in two places at once, you see?"

She heard Milla gasp from the doorway at the lovely bird. Love at first sight. Elena knew the feeling.

XXXXXXXXXX

In the drawing room at the boarding house, Elena brought a large heavy cup to Milla. She sat beside the girl. "Milla, have you ever had to drink yucky stuff so that the hospital can see inside your tummy?"

Milla made a face and said she had. "Well this will be yucky too, but not quite that much. I have mixed it with honey, so it's thick and sweet, but it's yucky too. And if it gets cold, it is truly nasty. Do you think you can drink all of this before it gets cold for us, honey? It will make you feel all better."

Milla promised she would drink it all.

And just like that, the first step was done. Twenty four hours would tell the tale for little Milla.

Elena kissed Elijah on the cheek and was gone. Ember had been asked to stay close, not nip at the child and allow the girl to pet her. At that last part, Ember had turned unblinking eyes on Elena. Elena got the impression that Ember was indignant, but would do what she was asked.

XXXXXXXXXX

Bonnie had decided on a using a small clearing some 50 yards away from the house. It was surrounded by trees, isolated and just the right size.

No one had seen Bonnie at work from their group for a very long time, and had no idea what they were in for. Elena and Bonnie had agreed to take down the spell together. Elena had a natural gift for the work, according to Elijah. Bonnie could get her close and help her identify where to work without hurting anyone. That was the part she had been missing before. With the werewolf boy the night of the attack she had just pulled everything up by the roots, leaving nothing when he finished his compulsion to answer her questions. He had collapsed and died right there in the Salvatore home when she was done.

And so, everyone assembled to watch when the moon was at its highest in the night sky. Jeremy called "now" and Bonnie began. As before there had been many words and incantations early on, now it seemed that Bonnie had grown exponentially in power.

In the quiet, Bonnie closed her eyes, tipped her face to the half moon and said only "Terra."

Five pillars of stone rose from the grass, shifting, adjusting to do as she commanded. Four of them made four corners and a single one lifted half as tall in the middle as the others.

When all movement stopped, with Bonnie beyond hearing the gasps of the others, she tipped her head again and said "Aquas" and rain poured from a cloudless sky, covering the entire clearing and everyone in it.

Elena tipped her own face to the rain and licked her lips with joy. She wished Elijah could see this, but she would show him later.

The rain stopped when everything had a thorough soaking. Then Bonnie said "Aeris" and gale force winds filled the small glade. It seemed to move like a small dust devil from one end of the circle she had made to the other before settling in and dispersing to the stones, to hover there above each corner.

Finally, Bonnie said only "Ignis" and a fire erupted from her small hands and swept across the grass to light the stones as well. The fire and the air hovered over each stone, moving, blending, mixing in a swirl.

Elena crossed her wrists across the stone and Jack did the same. They anchored together there across the smallest middle pillar of rock. She smiled and winked at him. Jack smiled back grimly. Bonnie lifted her face again to the moon and said "Vitae" the elements within the circle seemed to go wild around the two of them.

Bonnie said then with a shout "Ab aeterno, ab hinc, absit invidia!"

The power very nearly threw Elena from the circle. She could feel the additional life force within Jack struggle. It was the enchantment, seeing its own end, working to regroup and push. Elena closed her eyes and saw the wall she always saw when she entered any mind. Elijah's looked like a red brick wall, the exterior of a home. Damon's was unaccountably tall and dark. Jack's appeared to be busting at the seams, buckled and bowed. With the boy, she was new and had just pushed through the wall. After Elijah's training, she made a door and opened it. Jack's mind, his consciousness was layered in the same thick, roping briars she recognized from the boy. Thinking to Bonnie, knowing she would hear, she described the sight and Bonnie's answer came on the wind. "Ab Immo." Deeper. So rather than working at the base pulling upwards by the roots as she had with the boy, Elena began to work through the briars, allowing them to rip and tear her as they would. She didn't care. She wove and worked through layer after layer of great, roping briars finding some of them as thick and large around as her arm or her thigh. She did not tear, but stretch and push at them, ever deeper. It felt like she was here for hours, ever pushing against the briars and then she found the center of it all. Jack was there, finally, wrapped in the briars, imprisoned there and looking terrified. She freed him enough that he could hear her and speak. She leaned forward and whispered the words to Jack. It had to come from him, or it would kill him. She told him so. _Just say it Jack for your people, for Milla._

Jack let the words rip from his chest in a great roar, his eyes yellow. "Vepres morior, alea iacta est." And the briars disappeared to dust. The die was cast.

She was pulled now, backwards, through the portal of Jack's consciousness as a great wind blew through her, sweeping her and the remaining dust forever away. Elena saw as she went that this would free his entire pack. The power, the spell had been rooted in Jack, as their leader. If he had been lost, it would've reverted to his second and so on, until the end of time. By removing the briars here, all of them were free.

What she did not see was that when the spell began, her and Jack, anchored at their hands had been lifted from the ground by the combined elemental power of the air, fire, water, air and finally spirit (represented by Jack). They moved together at blinding speeds and the entire group was mesmerized watching the two of them levitate and spin in the middle of the circle of light and air and water. Bonnie, who was also lost in the power along with Jack and Elena saw only what Elena saw. When Elena watched the briars blow away to dust and was pulled away, the elements dispersed at once causing an explosion that sent her, as the intruder in the circle, out of the glade and across the sky in an explosion of fire and power that shook the ground beneath all of them. Her body flew up and over, crashing through trees and knocking over dozens of them. The area where her body lay looked like a small bomb had gone off.

It was Stefan that found her first. The fire had burnt away part of her clothes, charring some of it, but her skin had already healed. The trees were demolished around her and he lifted her into his arms, running back toward the house. She had been thrown nearly five miles. Damon met him part of the way, inspecting her. She was still unconscious, but there were no injuries.

Elena woke to jarring and the smell of Stefan. For a moment she was seventeen again and he was her hero. Leaning in close she wrapped arms around his neck and laid her head there. And then the scent filled her senses of blood and she was hungry, starving in fact. Before she understood where, or why or what was happening, she had opened her mouth, fangs extended and was hovering close to his skin. At the last possible moment she remembered some remnant of who she was and leapt from his arms with a roar of horror and pain, landing gracelessly against the roots of an ancient tree.

She looked at her hands and they were greying before her eyes. She was dying, starving. How was this possible? And then Stefan and Damon were coming in close, attempting to help her. She roared in horror, mindless, fearful. All she could think was that she would hurt one of them. She was backing away, against the tree, pushing up and away, too weak to stand.

"She's starving." Stefan could see the grey under her skin. They couldn't call Elijah to come to her because he was with Milla, the girl, protecting her at Elena's request.

"The blast threw her nearly five miles. That's bound to wear on a body." It was Damon and he could see what needed to happen. "Stefan, go tell them that we've found her. I'll bring her back when she's able to travel. It'll be a few minutes, but she'll be fine."

"But Damon…." Concern for his brother.

"I got this man."

Damon drew closer to her and she snarled low. And spoke through clenched teeth. "Please go."

"It's okay, Elena. You saved everybody tonight. Jack and Milla will be free. You did it." He was talking, distracting her as he drew in a little closer with each word. "Let me be the one to save you now, honey. Just this one last time."

Tears streamed down her face. "I'll hurt you. Please, just go back." She sobbed now, shaking as the thirst tore through her, her entire body ached and burned.

"You would never hurt me, or anyone else for that matter." Lovingly he pulled her up and into his arms. "Please let me do this, Elena."

He was close and the scent was more than she could stand. For good measure, he drew a line across his own jugular with a fingernail, and a single line of blood appeared. When the scent hit the air, she moved, pushing him to the ground.

She sank her teeth into Damon's skin without another thought for him or anything but to make the burning stop. And he let her, wrapping his arms around her effectively locking her in place as she fed and sobbed and moaned.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

When Elena started to become aware again, she found herself holding Damon down feeding on him. He had started to grow weak, but had made no attempts to stop her at all. She also found that with most of her clothing burned in the fire that sent her body flying, she was nearly naked and had been rubbing herself against one of her best friends as she fed.

She and Damon were on the forest floor, her belly was full and if the tension in her limbs, her abdomen were any indication, they were just about to have sex. Her body was still buzzing with desire for him, even when she was now completely aware of herself.

His blue eyes were studying her, his eyes glittering. He had opened them when she went still in his arms. There were trails of blood smears all around his face and neck. She had done that. She threw herself up and away from him at blinding speed.

Damon didn't even see her move. One second she was there, the next she was gone.

His eyes scanned the dark forest around him and then he heard her, from ten feet away, "Are you alright?" She was asking _him_ that. She had been thrown nearly five miles in an explosion that had ended up flattening God knew how many acres of Salvatore land. And her first question is about whether someone else is okay. _Same old Elena_.

"Well, I've had better days, but yeah, I'm fine." He tried to stand then, and swayed a bit. Then she was by his side, supporting his weight. "I took too much. I hurt you. I'm sorry." Her face was a mask of agony. She offered him her wrist and he pushed it away.

"Please. I'm fine." He grinned a bit, but it fell flat.

And then he would've fallen flat too, if she hadn't been there to catch him.

In a strange twist of fate, _she_ carried _him_ back to the boarding house. He was the one that pointed out the irony of that to her as they went.

XXXXXXXXXX

They got Damon some blood and he was going to be fine. He was still wise cracking when they walked through the door together. He insisted on walking the last portion of the distance. "You will _not_ be carrying me over the threshold of my own home with God and everybody in there. Sorry, Super Girl, that ain't gonna happen."

But everyone in the room saw the markings on him and knew she had done it. Her stomach clenched at the thought.

She had caught a glimpse of Milla on the way up the stairs. She was lying on the floor at her father's feet. Her color looked better already. She looked at her watch. Twenty one more hours to go. Maybe little Milla would be OK too, now.

She left intending to take a shower. She had excused herself saying that she would clean up, avoiding Elijah's eyes as she left the room. She peeled off the jacket she had borrowed from Damon to cover her lack of clothes and took a good look at what was left. The tank shirt was basically gone, tattered. Thank God for a nice bra, she supposed…but still. Her pants were a lost cause now. Heart breaking. These were her favorites, too.

When she emerged from the shower, she found clean jeans and a pink t-shirt laid out on the bed. Elijah was waiting for her.

"Milla?"

"Milla's fine. She's turned in with her father for the night. I think that little girl is going to be fine now. She's already much stronger and the grey is fading very quickly. I think she'll look like a different little girl by morning even." Elena sagged with relief.

"My concern is you. I felt the explosion. Are you alright?" He came to her then and wrapped his arms around her.

She nodded, her head lowered. "Yeah, it was pretty intense."

"Bonnie said before she left that Jack and his people should be free to go where they want now." Thank goodness for Bonnie and her tendency to wrap things up into tight little packages. Elena had not looked forward to trying to explain to anyone what she had seen and what they had been done – accomplished.

"She also told me privately that it was pretty bad in there." Elijah raised her head so she would have to meet his eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She pulled away, unwilling to meet eyes. She knew he would want to see what she had seen, and she couldn't show him just a little of it. She would end up showing him everything and the thought brought emotions to the surface she wasn't willing to deal with yet.

"Not really, Elijah. I would just like to sleep for now." And so they settled on the bed together with Elijah wrapping his arms around her as she slept.

XXXXXXXXXX

She felt him coming. She had been dreaming about train models. She was piecing one back together and it wasn't cooperating. Stupid glue. She kept getting her hands stuck in the pieces and having to pick pieces off of her hands. She would never get this train put together. The walls of her room buckled and that was how she knew he was coming.

She stood then, still picking pieces out of the glue and met him at the door, her eyes angry. "You aren't supposed to be here." She had her arms crossed and wouldn't let him pass. He wasn't stronger than her here.

"You're upset. You need to open up, Elena."

"Not today, Elijah. Have you thought that I might have my reasons for needing to be alone with this mess I've created right now?" He tried to take her in his arms and she avoided him. "DO NOT TOUCH ME, DAMMIT!" She was furious. One dodge and she pushed him back out the door and slammed it behind him.

She settled back on the floor with her train model. She had to get this thing done. Stupid glue.

XXXXXXXXXX

She woke alone and knew what she had to do.

Elena heard Milla move from her bed next to her Dad and pad around her room a bit. The little girl appeared on the stairs wrapped in a soft white robe that covered her blue nightgown.

Elena was leaning on the stair rail and smiled when she saw her. Glowing green eyes looked at her, they had been pretty before, but she was beautiful now. Her cheeks were pink and healthy. She was smiling.

"Miss 'lena, does you have cereal? I'm really hungry."

"I don't know sweetheart, why don't we go look together." She held out her hand and Milla took it with a smile.

She didn't know who to thank for Milla being alright, so she thanked every god that she could think of. Her hair was glowing and a soft brownish color with natural blonde highlights. She was frankly the most beautiful little girl Elena had ever seen. But maybe she was prejudiced, being a new god mother and all.

Jack came down a few minutes later and saw Milla hunched over a bowl of cereal at the kitchen bar. Elena was watching her eat and smiling. He didn't know what he had done to deserve his little one being healthy, or this friend that had been willing to do so much for someone who barely knew them, but he was grateful just the same.

He poured himself a cup of the coffee she had made and went to settle in beside Milla at the counter. Elena met his eyes and grinned, looking back at Milla with joy. The little girl was demolishing a bowl of some sort of sweet cereal Elena had found for her.

"Good morning, Mills" Milla looked up into her daddy's face and hers scrunched up with worry. "What's wrong Daddy?" Jack didn't realize that tears were rolling down his cheeks until then.

"Not a single thing, sweetheart. I'm just happy." They had four hours left.

Elena settled into onto the stool beside him at the bar.

"Jack, I need to talk to you for a minute." She met his eyes, then pointed at one ear and put a finger to her lips. She didn't want to be overheard. Got it.

She pointed at a pad of paper in front of him. Pen in hand she wrote, _I need wheels, a bike. Does someone in your pack have one for sale?_

He took the pen from her hand and responded, _Everything I have is yours. You can take mine._

She shook her head emphatically. _Just need to borrow until I can get somewhere and buy my own. _

He nodded. Then she wrote _You don't owe me or anyone else anything. Milla being safe and healthy is enough for all of us. Don't carry some debt with you, K?_

He still didn't understand, so he wrote _Why did you help us? I didn't really expect, when we came here that you would…._

She appeared to consider that for a moment, she looked fondly at Milla's head, soft gold highlights playing in the caustic lights of the kitchen.

_One smile from her and my heart was lost. It was love at first sight, Jack._

He nodded. _That_ he could understand and believe. It also brought him some level of comfort knowing that this powerful creature loved his daughter like that. Milla would be safe. An entire wolf pack and a viscous female vampire all a phone call away….

So, before anyone else was awake and stirring, Jack took Elena outside and introduced her to his bike.

"You ride, right?"

"Yes. My dad taught me when I was twelve."

"This isn't a dirt bike, Elena."

"I'm not some silly human female biting off more than she can chew, Jack." She grinned.

Yeah, ok, point made.

Jack unloaded the bike and pulled off the cover. "Oh, my. It's a Harley Softail Custom. Black matte paint. It's beautiful, Jack. Are you sure you want to do this? Even for a few days…."

He shrugged. It was paid for and not a priority to him. "No big deal at all, Elena. Take it for as long as you need. When you're ready, let me know and we'll arrange delivery back to New Mexico. But I'm not using it right now. I have responsibilities." He meant Milla.

The bike had leather side bags and Elena had plans for them.

XXXXXXXXXX

At the one hour countdown mark, Elena began to paw through the bag that Elijah had brought. There was an extra change of clothes in there for her, and she needed them. He had not slept in the bed she woke in and she didn't know where he was, even now. Everyone had been up for several hours. Only Jack knew of her plans, and he wouldn't be saying anything.

Headed for the door of her room, thinking to get these things in the side bags, Elijah stepped in suddenly. He leaned against the door, watching her and she flushed.

"What's going on, Elena?"

"When the pack rolls out, I'm going to follow them to the state border, to make sure they are able to cross it without problems."

Crossing his arms, he shook his head. "Why would you need a change of clothes for that?"

She looked at her feet for a moment. "I'm leaving, Elijah."

She saw him blanche at that.

"It's just for a little while. I'm working out something and I can't discuss it. And you won't leave me alone long enough for that."

"Listen, if this is about last night, I'm sorry."

"That's not it, Elijah. It contributed, but I probably would've had to do this either way."

Elijah had been here before, watching someone he loved walk away from him. The eyes she turned on him were cold.

"I need a day, a week, a month…I don't know. Just to get my head straight on my own for a little while."

"And you can't do that with me?" His tone was strangled.

"Not this time, no. I'm so sorry." But she didn't touch him. And after last night, he wouldn't try again.

"I love you, Elijah. And I am your wife. That won't change in a few days."

He didn't respond. What could he say, after all? He had hoped….so much. The struggle of being a new vampire was proving more for her than he had imagined. Perhaps he should never have asked her to do this…..guilt and pain threatened to squeeze the life out of him.

"Then go, Elena. And then come back to me. Remember that I love you and that all I have done has been for that reason."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Elena had been on the road for a little less than a week. Being alone was a new concept for her and she found that she actually did enjoy it to some extent. She still found herself seeing something, a flower at a rest stop in a shade of pink she had never seen, or a child in a purple tutu and tennis shoes that made her want to laugh and she would turn, looking for Elijah to share the laugh with her. Of course, he wasn't there. She had left him standing in the driveway at the Salvatore Boarding home with a kiss and eyes that promised she would return soon. None of their friends had realized that she would not be doubling back and headed to Richmond after the wolf pack reached the Virginia border and crossed it without problems.

She had so many discussions with Stefan in the early years about vampires and their differences from humans. Evidently Stefan had been glossing over some of the less savory details. It was understandable, really. He wouldn't have wanted to answer questions that some of these things would've created in a conversation. But still….She had understood some of it, but never really grasped the true differences until the night of the ritual to release Jack's people. It was these things she was grappling with, so far to no avail.

Elena missed her husband desperately. It was crippling to not have his face to wake up to every morning. She wept for him, for their trust and the closeness she had always felt with him. But she didn't deserve any of it now. And she couldn't face him. She didn't have the courage left for that. So she wandered from town to town. She hung out at biker bars, hunting from time to time. This was a newly acquired skill. She was finding that it was easy, if you didn't take too much and didn't kill. She had spent the last year eating from the refrigerator, having never actually hunted before. She didn't believe that Elijah was limiting her purposely, but the lack of experience had been difficult at first. She had managed not to hurt anyone enough to kill or even hospitalize. She was finding that she had some remarkable control, all things considered. She usually then compelled the person she had been drinking from to think that mosquitos were remarkably large this year, or that they had cut themselves shaving or some other bit of nonsense until the marks she left healed.

The blood was much better this way, too, but she could live without that.

One interesting thing she discovered was that the people she drank from actually enjoyed it. This was a real surprise. Her surprise was because she herself had been the occasional vampire juice box and never exactly enjoyed it. But then again, she had never been skillfully approached for that sort of thing. The person attacking her then had meant it to hurt. The men she fed from were more than pleased to be where they were when she was done with them. She could usually smell the arousal, a kick of endorphins and adrenaline to the blood stream, sometimes even before she bit down. Then it would increase twenty fold when she did bite. Strange. No one had ever told her that her victims would smile and say thank you when she was done. And that was minus the compulsion. She never used compulsion for hunting, it seemed unfair. She only used it to explain any injury or lightheadedness.

It was while she was doing this hunting that she was interrupted by her husband. She recognized his scent before he came in the door of the bar. She was in a far corner, in the near dark, with a man named Stan. Stan had been working toward a kiss. She hadn't eaten in a day, so she was working to keep it light and easy with Stan. Hurting or causing pain was never her intention, just to take enough to keep her strong.

From behind her, she felt him approach. Her heart ached. Stan opened his eyes and saw him standing there.

"What do you want?" that was Stan. He didn't want for them to be interrupted. How sweet.

Elijah answered grimly "My wife."

Elena compelled Stan to forget he had ever seen her or Elijah and that he should be more careful shaving.

She turned back to Elijah then and her heart broke at the sight of him. He still appeared the same, a ten thousand dollar suit, Italian shoes, but the dignity he usually carried was absent. He looked worn and tired and fed up.

"Elijah."

"Elena, I have tried to be patient. I gave you five days. That's the best I can do. If you have not worked out whatever is troubling you in this time alone, then you aren't going to. I am not leaving here without you. Even if I have to throw you over my shoulder and drag you out." He spoke very quickly and succinctly when he was upset. Each word was quickly and perfectly pronounced.

She knew he meant what he said. He didn't make idle threats. And most of all, she just didn't want to fight with him. She was overjoyed to see him, in fact, but was unable to tell him so. The wall between them seemed too high.

"We can go." Was all she said. More grimness from him as he watched her gather her purse, he produced a bill to pay her bar tab, and they were gone.

Fortunately this particular bar was in walking distance to the hotel she had chosen. It wasn't fancy, but it was clean and served her purposes. She opened the door to her room and motioned for him to come inside. He had remained silent for the walk over.

"Why are you here, Elijah?"

"I have decided that if you're going to leave me, that's fine, but I'm coming too."

She sputtered into laugher in surprise. He smiled a little, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Damon came and talked with me about what happened in the woods. He seemed to think that might be the problem." _Stupid Damon. Never could keep his mouth shut._

"I don't want to talk about this, Elijah."

He jerked her into his arms, patience gone. "I don't give a damn what you want. I need for you to talk to me." He shook her until she thought her head would rattle in his frustration.

She flung his hands off her shoulders and walked over to the other side of the room, looking for distance.

"When Damon told you what happened, did he mention that I nearly had sex with him on a mound of dirt and old trees?" She was crying suddenly. "Did he tell you that I wanted him? Because I did."

Elijah opened his mouth, but she put up a hand. "Wait, just listen."

"You're going to say that this is just the way of vampires. That what happened there was normal. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that he did what he did. It's my response that disgusts me. If blood and sex are so closely associated for vampires, I'm not sure I can do this. Because I was feeling things for him that I should only ever feel in your arms. I would have been unfaithful when I have made you promises about fidelity."

She was in his arms this time, wrapped closely as she wept on expensive suit.

"Sweetling, is this what has been troubling you? Why you didn't want for me to touch you?" All she could do was tremble and nod. He had moved her so he could see her face. With her nod, he kissed her, and wrapped his arms around her chest lifting her to meet his kiss.

"I have protected you when I shouldn't have about some things. I didn't purposely leave these things, out. I thought we would get around to them together. I should know better than to make plans where you're concerned." His voice was hushed and tense as he spoke into her hair.

"You are right about blood and sex being closely related for vampires. But what you don't know is that as part of the blood exchange, feelings are amplified. Someone you fear, or hate, you will fear or hate more. If you feel affection, it will become attraction and need. Do you see where I'm going?" She nodded into his shoulder.

"So you felt something with Damon that upset you. Let me show you what it should be so that you can compare. Is that fair?' She nodded again, eaten up with shame.

He turned his head then and led her to his throat. "Bite down, little one." He felt her tense. "No, don't do that. You can't hurt me, my heart. There is no danger. Please." She picked up his unique scent, something she had been missing for five days, and the blood just under the surface, and her own need for him, only him. Elena swiftly sank her teeth in, having learned from five days of hunting that the slower she went, the more it hurt.

He filled her mouth then, a warm, lovely taste of sweet richness. Sealing her lips over the wound, she pulled, and felt his heart respond, stuttering and thumping again, harder. In the blood, in the intimacy of this moment, she felt his heart close to her own, thrumming out a simple message of tenderness, need and blinding love….all for her. Her body responded and she found before she could pull away that her body was already reaching a climax of its own accord. And he hadn't touched her yet, except to grasp her head to his throat with one hand and gently stroke her back with the other.

Elena moved her mouth away and turned her own neck so that it was subject to him. She pulled his head down to her, pressing him to her. She said only "Please." If she was going to experience this, she wanted all of it. And so he did. When he bit down, her body came apart at the seams. She was up, legs around his waist, clawing at his back, gasping, moaning his name. He pushed her against the wall, against the door, pushing against her on every possible surface available to them. Just as when she had bitten Elijah, he now felt the message her heart held within. Love, unworthiness, pain, the torment of having betrayed him all blended together to meet him in the thrumming silence of her heartbeats, her heart crying out his name. The end result was a hotel room with buckled drywall (in four separate places), a bed with two broken legs, torn sheets and a broken television screen.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

_Elijah was making preparations for them to leave the hotel room in Colorado. He had made arrangements with management about repairs that would be necessary to the room they had given Elena. He was forced to sign some sort of agreement, which was fine. He honestly couldn't care less. He had her again. A few thousand dollars for repairs was nothing to him. _

_He left his card and the name of his secretary so that arrangements and payment for damages could be made. He was sure that there would be an attempt to take him to the cleaners over the whole thing, but to be honest, that was why he had lawyers. They could handle it._

_When he had walked into that bar to find her in a dark corner with a man, he had wanted to take the place apart with his bare hands. He would have too, if he hadn't realized she was hunting in time. And, to his shame, being territorial and a vampire, he had also wanted to kill Damon when her friend had explained to him what had happened in the woods. Details had been skimmed over, but he got the idea. He came here expecting her to tell him that she wanted their marriage to be was over. She didn't want him to touch her, so that was his natural conclusion. Instead he now saw and understood what she felt, what she had hid from him before the blood exchange last night. To find that she had missed him as much, felt ravaged by the pain of her perceived betrayal of him, felt joy at seeing him, loved him, these things answered all of his pain in one fell swoop. _

_He had felt he had valid reasons for postponing introducing Elena to the blood exchange. The main one being that he would see and understand more than he would be understood. He had felt it was an intrusion on her privacy. It frustrated him that it seemed at every turn, when he tried to protect her, inevitably it backfired. If they had shared a blood exchange connection before her emergency in the woods outside the Salvatore home, then what happened with her friend would have been expected and disregarded. The feelings would have been something she knew how to handle. He felt sure that he had almost lost her and he blamed himself. _

_Now he would embrace the advantages blood exchange offered as often as she wanted it. He saw that they needed this, this connection and trust that was the end result of such an exchange. Funny how even he could learn something new, even after so long. He had expected she would want to continue her life as if the accident had never happened, as if she was still human, but she wasn't. And pretending that nothing had changed had been of no advantage to anyone._

_He stepped out into the sunshine and took a deep breath. His Elena still loved him. Everything else was irrelevant. And to think that she was concerned that she had been disloyal. He had never known another who was more loyal than she was. _

_And for this woman that he loved, he would give her whatever she wanted. If she wanted to continue riding across the country on motorcycles, continue the tour she had begun, he would go with her. Business be damned._

Elena watched in amazement as the necessary gear, along with a bike was delivered the next morning for Elijah. She would never understand how quickly he could get things done. He said only that you could get whatever you needed with enough money. He smiled at her response when he set aside his suit and put on the leathers for travel.

At her expression of wonder and surprise he said "What? Did you expect that I would ride in tailored suits?" The man encased in butter soft black leather made her mouth water. She told him so. He decided then and there that he was long overdue for an occasional wardrobe change anyway.

It was another two hours before they left, and one of those hours _was not_ spent packing or preparing.

XXXXXXXXXX

Elena and Elijah went whatever direction the wind blew for a while. Together they went as far north as Montana, as far west as Washington State. Elena fell in love with the apple orchards in Washington and the rolling fields that glistened in the morning dew. They rode late into the night sometimes and then all day long other days just for the joy of riding together. She found that her eyes were sharper, especially at night and that she could find herself lost in the way the morning sun was captured in a dew covered spider web. A sunrise could reduce her to tears. Yes, there was horror in being a vampire. Death, pain, blood were around every corner. Those things she knew too well. But she also was beginning to see the positive things as well, the beauty, the depth of emotion, the precarious balance between living and existing seemed to hold her captive for a while like the sun on those dew drops.

_Elijah watched her explore and remembered his own first few years as a vampire. There had been no one to teach then, no one to show him the balance between the beauty and the horror of what he had become. He was so grateful to be this for her. They made love often, sometimes in an abandoned field in the tall grass and the rain, sometimes in a lovely hotel room where they tried not to do damage. There was a wildness and a peace about this time that they both treasured. They worked together to keep it just this way. Reality would inevitably intrude soon enough._

On interstate 80 somewhere between Utah and Nevada reality caught up. They had been on the road together for two weeks. Ember had been flying with them, falling back and catching up as it suited her. Elijah was fascinated with the falcon. He told her he had seen many familiars over the years, some his own, some belonging to others, but never this kind of creature, and never of its own will. The creature was devoted to Elena in ways that she felt sure she couldn't begin to deserve. But, along this stretch of road the tunnel vision indicating that she was seeing through someone else's eyes interrupted her scan of the horizon.

She saw a dozen men, all on motorcycles moving at blinding speeds to intercept her and Elijah on the abandoned road ahead. She also saw a dozen more werewolves already transformed running in formation with the same intention. One group approached from the north and one from the south. She pulled her bike over and Elijah did the same, questions in his eyes. When she told him what was coming, he smiled grimly and said it was just as well that they hadn't caught up to them while they were moving. So they would stand.

He asked her to describe exactly what she saw, specifically any weapons they might be carrying on their bikes, or anything large enough to be concealing a weapon. She reached out to Ember and saw the men again. They were closer, naturally, but when she looked closely at their bikes, she saw nothing that indicated large firepower of any kind, or even smaller weapons, really. There might be the personal handgun, but no crossbows, stakes, or anything that would be of concern to a vampire.

_Elijah suggested that they were probably on a retrieval mission. His stomach clenched at the thought that if he had let her continue on alone as she had originally asked, she would've faced this ambush alone._

Elijah ran down, very quickly the plan he had in mind when the two hunting parties arrived. And so, rather than being ambushed, they were waiting on the two groups to converge on them.

Hand in hand is how they found the two motorcycle riders. The leader had been told that the female was a very strong vampire. The male was an unknown. It was their suspicion that he was a human she had acquired along the way, by compulsion no doubt. He had been told to bring the female in as peacefully as possible. She had committed some sort of crime against the council that didn't really matter to him; all he really wanted was a good fight. It had been quiet and he was restless; his men were restless. He hoped the female would comply a little before they took her.

The men stopped and dismounted their bikes. The wolves waited on the other side, snarling with their impatience, but they all together effectively surrounded Elena and Elijah.

One man came forward. He was a typical biker with long, dark brown hair, long black coat and carrying his helmet in one hand. He didn't expect this would take long, clearly. He addressed Elena "The Council wants to see you, Vamp-bitch. So you'll be coming with us."

Elijah saw red.

Before Elena could move or respond to the insult, Elijah seemed to become wind itself. She had never seen anyone or anything move so fast. He was just gone from her side and the man who spoke suddenly couldn't anymore because his head and shoulders were no longer attached. The spray of the blood, caught in the wind he created as he moved from one man to the next created a red cloud in the sunrise around them that swirled like a dust devil rising high. The plan had been for Elena to take the men, he would take the wolves, but clearly he had changed his mind. So turning to the wolves, one sprang and Elena wrapped her arms around its neck and wrenched. She felt the neck break and went to move to the next one. But Elijah was already there moving so quickly she couldn't tell how the wolves were dying, only that bodies and more spray of blood was the result. The pink mist around them grew as the wolves and the men never stood a chance.

Even in his anger, Elijah had the presence of mind to leave one of them alive. It was the one he assumed to be the second in command. He had stood behind the speaker before and looked a bit shocked at the insult when it came. This man was still standing, baffled while his friends hit the ground and he never saw an attack.

When Elijah came to a stop, he took the head of the speaker and handed it to the man left standing, tucking it under the man's arm like a helmet. Actually it was the same way the big mouth had held his own helmet while he had insulted Elena. Elijah said "I would like for you to give this to Jonah Walker. Tell him that I'm Elijah and that he's managed to piss me off, which really is quite a feat. He should be expecting for me to pay him a visit very soon."


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's note: This is a short, sweet transition chapter. I wanted to establish a ground work for the fireworks that are coming and that although the world stopped for Elena and Elijah for a while, the rest of the world kept on turning for those around them. I also was forced to do some research on how Damon and Elena being best friends will work. The two in this story absolutely insist on it, though. As a long time married lady, male best friends are well beyond my experience while married. (Elijah's possessive side is loosely based on my husband -who incidentally does make my mouth water when he wears his leathers for riding…. ahem….)**

**So, anyway, I hope you enjoy.**

**If you have a moment, please review. Those reviews are precious to me. Thanks again.**

Chapter 11

The ride home was uneventful. They stayed on their guard, Ember staying vigilant all the way. But they were never challenged again.

When they weren't riding, they were discussing how best to proceed. Elijah's knee jerk reaction was that he would confront the council leader alone and Elena should stay away. When she pointed out that this had been an ambush intended for her, and more importantly, they clearly knew enough about her movements that they could find her. Did he really want to leave her all alone to go and kill one when there might be dozens waiting for her? She did find pretending to be the helpless female coming in handy from time to time. Naturally, Elijah saw what she was doing, but did see some logic in the point. From there on, they began to plan together.

When they got home, the first thing Elena did was return one of a thousand voicemails from Damon. She hadn't taken her phone with her purposely. She found it in the luggage that Elijah had left in their bedroom while she was gone and it was about to blow up with messages.

Damon answered the phone on the second ring, "Elena?"

"I just got home."

"I'll be right there."

Fifteen minutes later her doorbell pealed. Elijah was in the shower.

Elena stepped onto the front porch two steps and saw no one. Suddenly two strong hands grasped her from behind, one at her belt loop, one at her shoulders and she was launched across her front yard into an open stretch of grass. She turned, prepared for battle, but landed hard enough on her back to dig a shallow trench in the yard. _Uggh. Elijah loves this yard. He's SO gonna kill me._ Before she could get her bearings though, Damon had already launched himself at her and pinned her to the ground, straddling her chest, one hand against each of her shoulders.

"I thought we agreed you weren't going to do this shit to me again!" He roared. His eyes were red, veins on his face, fury in every line of his face and posture.

_Damon had worried for weeks. Seeing that she was fine, rather than bringing relief, made him angrier. If she was fine, then she just hadn't called, had let him continue to think the worst had happened, with no consideration whatsoever._

But she was shaking her head. "You're right, go ahead. Free shot. I deserve it. Commence with the beating already."

When he saw she wasn't going to fight back, he sat up, loosening his hold on her shoulders. The rage drained right out of him. His eyes faded back to blue and the veins disappeared.

She sat up and wrapped her arms around his waist and he was completely confused. "I wasn't avoiding you, I swear." She pressed her face into his shirt. "You saved my life and I never even stopped to say so much as "Thank you." I suck as a friend, don't I?"

"Pretty much." He agreed. He settled onto the grass beside her. He was calming down after running on rage for weeks. "You've been gone for nearly a month, damn it. Elena, what the hell happened?"

"Elijah and I had a fight, I guess you could say. I couldn't stay. I needed some time to breathe and told him so. It was bad for a while. But I didn't even take my phone with me, Damon. I should've called you. I'm sorry that you were worried." She rose to her knees beside him, hugging his shoulders.

"I saw him a couple of days after you left. He was not a pretty sight." Elijah had been a damned mess actually. Well, for Elijah the fact that his suit was wrinkled equaled a mess, but still. It had been alarming. "And then he was gone too, and I had no clue what the hell was going on. He was about as open to conversation with me as ever, and I just didn't know what to think." Damon shrugged. "What goes on between you is none of my business, I know that. But when you disappeared, I thought the worst."

She smiled at him, kissing his cheek. "Damon, you're my best friend. You had a right to know where I was. I just didn't think. I was upset with him and didn't think." There was no reason why Damon should ever have to know the full reason for what had happened with Elijah. Damon had been prepared to do whatever was needed to save her life and if he knew it had created the backlash that it had, it would just cause him pain.

"You really actually _fight_ with him? Are you nuts?" His look said she must be suicidal, but she only smiled. He had seen what the guy could do and frankly he had to respect that kind of power. Evidently Elena got a free pass with that. Amazing.

"Is there anyone I won't fight with?"

"Very good point. We should get you therapy." He finally smiled back at her. "So, us being girlfriends and all," He rolled his eyes and grinned at that and she laughed at him. "Please, do tell how he pulled off getting you to talk to him."

She swatted the back of his head. "He found me in a biker bar, hunting. After looking like he would cheerfully rip the place apart, he told me he would drag me out if he had to and that if I was leaving him, that was fine, but he was coming too."

_Damon let out a bark of laughter, trying to picture it. The idea that Elijah would ever come down off of that high horse of his was hilarious. A biker bar? Really? That Elena could reduce the dignified vampire to chasing after her was even funnier. At least Damon wasn't the only one she could confuse and confound. He also noticed that it only took nearly letting her kill him to be acknowledged with best friend status. Clearly he should've armed her with a stake years ago._

From the porch, Elijah called, "Elena, if you and your friend are done playing in the yard, perhaps you'd both like to come in so we can plan?" He sounded like a frustrated parent, but he was smiling at them both.

"I haven't told him yet. We'll be right there." Elena called back, unruffled and grinning at his tone.

"Plan?" Damon turned on Elena.

"Yeah. We ran into some trouble. I thought you and Stefan might want in on what Elijah and I are thinking. And extra hands would be great." So Elena told him about the ambush and Elijah's battle with the werewolves.

"Oh, HELL NO!" Damon, like Elijah, was wondering what would've happened if she had been alone.

After the three of them sat down and discussed what they could do and options available, Damon suggested that they include Caroline, Stefan and Bonnie in the planning. _After all, the more the merrier, right?_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

_Elijah was talking with Jeremy and his wife about what they would need. He had half a dozen "unofficial" hackers at his disposal at any time, but using Suzette's skills were more comprehensive because of her security clearance. They could easily get details that they wouldn't get any other way. Asking her to do this was touchy, and Elijah had introduced the subject with an understanding that she could refuse at any time. But the girl was eager to help it seemed. For that he was thankful._

_ Across the room, Elena met his eyes and something glittered there. _

_ "Elijah?" Jeremy had asked him a question? "Yes?" Jeremy grinned, catching his brother in law's line of sight. "Um….you trailed off. You were going to say something about specs and locations?" _

_ "Oh yes, my apologies." He gave Jeremy and Suzette the details about what he was looking for. _

_He couldn't think when she looked at him like that... Since when could he not finish a conversation? He found her watching him again, and walked away from someone asking him a question without responding and didn't know he'd done it. The heat in her gaze was something new to his experience and he found that he needed to be close to her when she looked at him that way. She was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, Carolyn and Damon arguing over some detail across from her. Without a word, Elijah took her hand and led her out of the room. They got as far as around a corner before Elijah pushed her up to the wall and spread her hands wide against the wall, pressing himself against her so that his hips lifted her off the ground for a moment. Instead of kissing her, he pushed his face into her hair. His lips near her ear. _

"_You will need to stop doing that if you expect me to get anything done." He was speaking through gritted teeth._

"_Doing what, exactly?" He could hear the smile in her voice._

"_You know." Still his words came out through gritted teeth._

"_I would think I can look at my husband any time and way I want. And honestly I only have one thing in mind that you should be doing." This was the answer she gave him. Still braced against the wall and him, she tipped her pelvis once, twice, and he trembled. He trembled in the arms of this woman. Impregnable she had called him once. And yet he trembled. _

_When exactly was this heat between them supposed to fade and they would become an old, staid married couple? _

"_Let's see what we can do about that then, shall we?" Completely uncaring at this point about dignity or who might be watching, Elijah threw her over one shoulder and headed up the stairs._

In the kitchen, Damon and Caroline watched as Elijah hauled Elena up the stairs. Elena looked like a rag doll over his shoulder, and Elijah's expression kept anyone from making a comment they would hear. When they were gone, Caroline looked at Damon and said "Why do they get all the luck? Why can't any of the rest of us get that?" Damon put his hand on hers on the table and said "Caroline, I'm touched. If you wanted to see me naked, all you had to do was ask." She laughed and smacked his hand away. "Seriously! Did you just see them? I'm surprised they got up the stairs."

"Things have been tense for the two of them. They deserve it." Was all Damon said.

_They got about as far as closing the door. They were back where they left off in the garden room downstairs. Except now Elijah had both of Elena's hands held with one of his and was working his way up her blouse with the other one. His hand moved across her smooth skin and she gasped into his mouth. The sounds she made drove him onward. _

_He had never known anyone so passionate, so open. He really didn't know how he had survived so long without her. He might have wealth, position, strength, speed, but she had the real power between the two of them as he saw it. She was the heart of him, of his home, his resting place, his passion. Although she was his and he knew it, he still found himself grateful that it was him she had chosen, even today, after so many years together. _

_Her legs came up around him, pulling him closer into her warmth. "I think we need to get rid of some of these clothes, Elijah." He put his hands under her blouse and pulled once, splitting the seams on both sides. It was sleeveless, fortunately. She giggled. He stepped away and she came to her feet. He did the same move with the pants she wore, and they fell in tatters around her. _

"_My turn." And she imitated his action, destroying a perfectly good silk shirt, pulling lightly on each of the sleeves until the seams gave. After loosening a belt, his pants joined hers in the pile on the floor in much the same condition. _

_He picked her up and tossed her lightly onto the bed meeting her there before she got comfortably settled. Looking down at her, rumpled and happy, he stopped and took her face into his hands. "You are my world, Elena. I don't ever want to face another day without you." He was thinking of how he had felt when she was gone, only weeks ago. His heart was in his eyes as he spoke. Years of habitual self-defensive coldness and indifference always fell away with her. She would have none of it. And he liked to think that she had changed him, made him a better man than he had been without her. He did know that he loved more fiercely with her than he ever had in his long life. _

Elena could see the cauldron in his eyes again. She saw love and need there and maybe a little uncertainty. "I love you, Elijah. _I need you._ Always. I learned that I can't breathe without you. That won't ever happen again. I promise. I'll talk to you. Trust you."

_As always, she knew his heart better than he did. She said just what he needed to hear. He wrapped her in his arms, close to this body of his that ached for her. Sitting, he put her on his lap, facing him and wrapped her legs around his waist. Ever so slowly he lowered her body onto his, watching her eyes widen, expand it seem, as heaven itself seemed to surround him. _

Much later, Elena smiled up at him. "I find you as "commander" very…um…distracting."

"I find the way you look at me very distracting."

"I'll try to be good." She pouted.

"No you won't."

"You're right. I won't. I'll try to time it better. Will that help?" Elena conceded.

"Yes, I guess that would be an acceptable compromise, for now." Elijah kissed her one last time before leaving the room, to get back to work. They had been gone from the action for the better part of two hours and he was sure there had been progress.

_As Elijah opened the door, he heard the others below. They had music and other sounds going to muffle their conversation, he assumed, but he heard just the same._

_The click of something was the first thing he heard, and then Damon said, "Two hours and twelve minutes." They had a stop watch on them? Really?_

_Caroline's voice said "Good Lord. I would've married him too…" which resulted in laughter all around the table._

_He would have to keep in mind that he had thrown his wife, their friend or sister, over his shoulder and taken her away with clear intent. Naturally they would be the source of conversation. He knew that they would not discuss it in front of him. There was a certain amount of formality about each of them, except for Jeremy (which he appreciated immensely), in his presence. That kept them forever acquaintances to him. This was something he was accustomed to. They loved Elena. By default that made them his friends. Period. And that was enough._

_Smiling to himself, he moved quickly enough to be standing behind Damon in the kitchen where all of them had gathered. He knew that when he tried, it could appear that he had materialized. He took the watch from Damon's surprised hand and asked "Now, just to clarify, is this time from when we hit the stairs, or when the bedroom door closed?" He smiled. _

_The whole room had frozen for a moment, and then erupted in peals of laughter. He laughed too, something they didn't see often._

"_And thank you, Caroline. Elena tends to take me for granted." Another smile just for Caroline, who blushed and smiled back at him._

_There was some ribbing that followed and he laughed along with them. _

_Suzette stood and pulled him aside. "I think I found something you'll be interested in."_

_He knew they would've made progress by now. "Wonderful. Will you show me?"_

_Suzette led him to the workstation she had been using, which was at his desk. She moved several screens so that they appeared simultaneously and began to explain what he was looking at. "I took the list of people you gave me and started looking for common activity. It took a bit, but if I break these groups of people down to families, I find that they have some very mild credit card activity in one common place and time every other month. Its small things, no travel records, so I would assume that their entire families go and that they all travel privately. But the common thread is definitely there. The location they all have in common is a small town called Great Bend, Kansas."_

_Elijah was impressed. "You are very good at what you do, aren't you, Suzette?"_

_She smiled. "Yes. I am." There was no pride in the statement, just fact._

"_Can you tell me when they are due to meet like this again approximately?"_

"_I thought you would ask." She pulled up a flow chart and showed him that the probability was that they would meet the night before the full moon, a little over a month from then._

"_Perfect." They had a little over a month to plan._


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Suzette was still working at grasping the whole supernatural thing even after nearly three years with Jeremy. She would always have a hard time swallowing that Ric was a vampire. He was one of the sweetest men she had ever met. And his love for Jeremy was there in her memory like a living thing. She had to fight tears every time she thought about him, actually. Losing him had felt like losing her father too. She guessed she had loved Ric too.

When her brother in law, Elijah, had asked her to help them get rid of the people who were ultimately responsible for Ric's death, she had jumped at the chance. She would take down every firewall between here and Taiwan if she had to in her efforts to find what Elijah wanted to know.

Suzette was a hacker. She worked at a defense intelligence agency based in Richmond. Which was ironic really because she learned to do what she did with the goal in mind of taking down all of those defenses one day. Her boss told her once that's why they had sought her out. Evidently hacking a central mainframe for the Pentagon got you noticed….or arrested. Who knew?

She had grown from a little girl that hated Barbies, princesses and ballet lessons into a rebellious hearted young woman. One who resisted all that was "expected" and ached to destroy. Which made hacking almost second nature, really, and a perfect outlet.

The contrary nature was hidden behind soft features and a head of naturally ringletted dark hair that hung down her back. She had hazel green eyes and her mouth would easily twist into a smile or chew her bottom lip depending on how she her efforts were going while she worked on whatever she had at hand. Or so Jeremy liked to tell her. Her favorite part about her appearance was that she was frequently described by others as "pixielike". Because of this, people tended to underestimate her, which suited her just fine. Then they didn't see her coming at all. The only one she was sure ever really got her was Jeremy Gilbert. He had spotted her a mile away and still decided to wade in. Amazing. And she loved him as she never had anyone or anything. She and Jer had married a couple of years ago after he had worn down _her_ defenses. She really did have a loving heart, just deeply protected after a mother who died too young and a father whose primary concern was his single life while his little girl looked on, unnoticed.

Now she spent her days plowing through every effort people made to keep what they owned, wanted or needed safe with her twisted smile. Her grandmother always used to say "What's done in darkness will always be brought to the light." She took great pride in thinking of herself as the vehicle for that. She could reroute millions in the blink of an eye, and had, several times. She loved her job, she could write code in her sleep if she had to, and had frequently. Then, she spent her nights with the sweetest, most self-contained guy to walk the planet.

Her friends had thought she was crazy when she had started dating Jeremy. Her converse tennis shoes matched with dark dresses and a leather motorcycle jacket had been an interesting foil on their first date for his khakis and loafers. But they were good together and she had grown into adult clothes since then. She had even asked him once what in heaven's name had made him ask her out in the first place when they met in an English class at MIT. At the time, he had laughed, thumped her nose lightly and told her "I learned a long time ago to look deeper than the surface, Suz." She learned later there was more to it than that.

She learned the full extent of that statement when she found out that his entire "family" consisted of all things supernatural. He had told her a few months after they had started dating before he asked her to marry him. She had thought his sweet, gorgeous, and funny self had missed one too many doses of lithium. It had taken a meeting at Ric's house to prove her wrong.

Jeremy had evidently expected her to doubt his sanity. He had told her in the car on the drive from Massachusetts to Virginia for a Christmas visit. He had timed it well, really, because she had only a minute or two to wonder how crazy he was really, before they had been parked at his home in Mystic Falls. Inside Ric and Jeremy's friend Damon had been waiting.

She had met Damon Salvatore for the first time at their summer vacation on the 4th of July. He reminded her of the Ken dolls she used to destroy when she was a little girl. He was too perfect, quite frankly, to be real. Like he had stepped off the cover of a GQ magazine to take a breath or something. The effect was eerie. He appeared to be maybe ten years older than she and Jeremy, but even then she had thought something wasn't quite "right" about him. When they had settled in the living room, drinking and laughing, Jeremy had suddenly looked at Damon and said "I need you to show her, Damon." He had nodded in Suzette's direction.

"Why in the world would you want your girlfriend to be terrified of me?" Had been the cryptic reply.

"It's either being afraid of you, or thinking I'm crazy. I already told her."

"You did WHAT?" Damon's blue eyes had narrowed at both of them. The first shivers of fear had started for her then. His expression was frightening, savage maybe.

"I love her, Damon. She'll have to know." This was the first she had heard about love, and her head had whipped around sending dark curls flying to take in Jeremy's expression. He swept her with a shy smile and hungry eyes before he turned back to Damon. "Please."

The other man had come to stand in front of Suzette and squatted in front of her. Her eyes met his and she watched his face change. Dark angry veins became visible on his face around the sockets where his eyes glittered. The eyes themselves, always a cool blue changed by degrees very quickly to an angry, wildly savage red. He opened his mouth and she saw two sharp fangs where his canines had been.

Her gasp had been the only sound in the room, and punctuated her backward crawl up the back of the couch with both feet firmly planted in what was once her seat. Retreating to childhood protections, she crossed herself as her grandmother had taught her. She wasn't actually Catholic, but she crossed herself just the same. Damon had laughed and the changes in his face faded.

"That wouldn't protect you, little girl. Rosaries either, so don't bother. But if it makes you feel any better, I don't eat people anymore." The threatening sounding words had been delivered with a sweet smile from Damon and anxious eyes studying her from Jeremy. Her brain seized on one word - "anymore".

The end result was a right-up-until dawn conversation in Jeremy's room about what he had seen, who he was and the entire list of people in his "family" and what they all were about. Even more disconcerting was finding out about Jeremy himself. That was when he had talked to her about his ability to see spirits, ghosts, whatever. Suzette supposed the technical term was that he was a medium. He then told her about her mother, who had died when she was two years old from cancer. She had stayed close to look after her angry little girl. It had all been surreal, but there were things that Belinda had to say, through Jeremy, that left her with no doubts about the truth. It seemed that it had been Belinda who had pushed Jeremy toward Suzette in the beginning. He had fallen for her, he said, but couldn't say anything until the whole story came out because of all the lying he refused to do. It turned out there were lots of things that Suzette started to understand that night.

Damon had been gone and not been seen again while she was still visiting that Christmas. She had appreciated that at the time, but understood now that this would've cost the older man on her account. This had been nearly three years ago and she had lost her fear of Damon, who could smile at her now and she didn't cringe in response. There were friendly conversations between them nowadays and Suzette found that he was actually pretty great in a sarcastic kind of way. It always felt like he was laughing at her. But he loved Jeremy and was a pivotal part of the family that had helped raise him after his parents died. Although she knew that others were plagued by the same "condition" in this little family unit Jeremy had going on, Damon would forever be the only one she had ever actually seen and it had changed everything for her. In her mind, that made him special.

Her definitions for lots of things had shifted after that as quickly as Damon's face had shifted that day. The resulting focus had her sitting at her brother and sister in law's house three years later planning to kill werewolves for trying to hurt all of them.

Of all of the people in this nontraditional family she had married into, she liked Elijah best, next to Jeremy's sister Elena. She found that she could relate to Elijah's formality and the grudging respect he got from the others. It was as if he didn't quite fit in but was determined not to care and so he just didn't care. She could relate to that on so many levels. Jeremy told her once that Elijah was really the scariest and strongest of all of them, but she just didn't see it. Even when he had materialized into the kitchen and sent Damon into what had appeared to be a heart attack earlier as they had all gossiped about him, Elijah wasn't scary, just surprising.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

And so began the work that they needed to prepare. Bonnie worked to gather what she would need. Elena spent time with her friend helping to dig through research as time allowed. Bonnie had a monstrous library of information at her home that Elena took great joy in tackling. Their first concerted efforts would focus on identifying and neutralizing the witches employed by the Werewolf Council. It was easily assumed that their work and efforts would be their first line of defense considering they seemed to rely heavily on magic in general. Elijah assured the team that this was a sign that the Council had become complacent and arrogant to trust their enforcement to witches, rather than the raw power of their own. Even forcing Jack's pack to stay where they were put had been a good indication of the mind set the council used. They were more willing to pay or force someone to defend them than to defend themselves. This weakness would be their undoing.

Along the way, Elena asked questions about the level of power she had seen Bonnie use in the grove at Damon and Stefan's home. Even if it had been ten years since the last time she had seen Bonnie cast a circle, that level of power was unusual for one person. When she asked, she ended up with her arms wrapped around her friend as she cried. It seemed that different families of witches were given their gifts, distributed evenly within a common umbrella of power. Some had their most concerted strength based in potions, enchantments or commands . Then the sources of their power were broken into families. Some pulled from natural phenomenon, lighting, earthquakes, weather. Some drew strength from emotion – fear, courage, hate or love. Bonnie, the last remaining member of the Bennett witches, was called an elemental witch. Her strength was drawn from the natural elements themselves giving her a more concerted strength all on its own. Usually a witch had one particular element that contributed most significantly to their strength. As Bonnie lost her grandmother and mother in the years after she discovered her power, she found that as a Bennett witch was lost, their element was distributed to the remaining witches left standing in the family. This left Bonnie able to pull the highest level of power from each of the five elements at will because she was the last.

When Elena had related these details to Elijah he had gasped aloud.

"What?"

"Do you realize how powerful that makes her, Elena?"

"No, not really, Elijah. I'm still trying to get my head around it."

"It means that she might be the strongest witch of her generation. My mother was a witch, in much the same position your Bonnie finds herself, except she drew strength from emotions, eventually all emotions. Her power twisted her, though, and she ended up creating what you and I are. Her power was vast enough that this single spell will stand until time ends. Now you're telling me that Bonnie is equally as strong. What a terrible responsibility for one young woman to carry." Elena sat thinking about that for a very long time.

"We need to make sure that Bonnie is never identified as a contributor to this thing we're doing. The last thing she needs is to become a household name among our enemies."

Elijah smiled to himself, proud at Elena's wisdom and insight. "Agreed."

XXXXXXXXXX

Caroline and Elena were sparring in the back yard.

The group had spent the weeks fate had given them preparing for what was to come. They knew now that the council meetings happened at the city hall building after hours in Great Bend. Blueprints for the city hall in Great Bend had been stolen and poured over. They knew the fastest and most direct paths of escape, both for themselves, if necessary and that would be used by the council members. They were able to gather information about how the council guarded the building while the meetings happened. They were also able to find the identities of three witches working for the council and work out a neutralizing strategy. It was sure that the three witches would inevitably be present at every council meeting. Also, through Jack, they could confirm when the meeting would take place without any doubt or supposition.

Damon was rolling through his own part to play in his mind while watching Caroline and Elena with sightless eyes.

Elijah came to join him, taking a seat on the step below him.

"I never got a chance to thank you for what you did for her." Elijah was looking out at Elena as she moved from one drill to the next without pausing.

"It was nothing." Damon knew that Elijah was talking about the night of the explosion. He shrugged a careless shoulder, uncomfortable with where this conversation might be going.

"No. I would have to disagree." Elijah turned to look Damon in the eyes then. "You might have saved her life when I couldn't. I don't know whether she would've been able to survive that if you hadn't been there. That means everything to me."

Damon looked back at Elijah searching for the trap in this conversation, and found none.

"I would do it again, for her."

"I know you would. She's lucky to have you. We both are." Elijah turned and looked back at the ladies again. "I had thought after her accident that she would be easier to keep alive. But she still manages to challenge my abilities at every turn to do that." Again he looked at Damon. "It's nice to have back up I can trust." He smiled then.

Damon found himself smiling back at Elijah without meaning to. "Yeah, well, she wouldn't be Elena if she didn't have a crazy suicidal streak."

They were laughing together when Elena noticed them. Holding up a hand to halt Caroline, she called across the courtyard, "Hey, guys. I don't think I like the looks of this. The two of you together can't possibly bode well for me." They both laughed again. A moment later Elijah stood and went back into the house.

XXXXXXXXXX

_The group would leave in time numbered by hours now, rather than days or weeks. Elena felt sure they were ready for anything, and still her stomach clenched at the thought of anyone she loved getting hurt. Fortunately at least Jeremy and Suzette would be safe. They would be waiting at Elena and Elijah's home for word of what happened. Two less people for her to worry about._

_ Over the last couple of days, she had noticed that Elijah had virtually withdrawn completely into himself. No one else would've noticed anything wrong, but his distance was also present with her. This worried her, mainly about his state of mind. When she found him sleeping on top of the covers of their bed, she laid down beside him, wrapped her arms around his torso and moved skillfully and quietly into his subconscious mind. _

_ The door made no sound as it swung open, but the air was split with battle cries and the clash of metal and bone. She looked down at her feet and found that her shoes were stained with blood. Elijah told her once that he didn't dream anymore, that it had stopped a long time ago. Evidently stress could trigger his dreaming again. _

_Then she saw him. She realized she was seeing Elijah from long ago. He was younger, perhaps twenty and his hair was longer, matted, and his clothing consisted of a thick wool tunic covered by what appeared to be crude armor of some sort. There were three men converging on him. He held a large sword in both hands over his head swinging with all of his might. As he swung, he caught one of the men in the face with the blade blinding him. The other two dodged back, one tripping over the other fallen man. Elijah sprung and sunk the blade into the second man's chest. The third swung out, too far from his own body and when his weapon struck Elijah's defensive move the weapon was dislodged from his hands and sent flying, landing at her feet. Elijah easily ended the third man and the battle continued to rage around them. But his attention had been caught by the sound of surprise she had made when the crude sword landed at her feet. He was looking straight at her now, and although he seemed to recognize her if his expression was any sign, he couldn't know that she had invaded his dream unless she told him so. Still, he looked annoyed with her._

_When he spoke, it took a moment for her to realize that he was speaking some other language, but she understood him just the same._ "You continue to interrupt me. Why do you insist on that?"

_Well, she understood the words, just not what he meant._ "I um….."

He reached out a bloody hand and pulled at the edge of her t-shirt. She was wearing the same t-shirt and jeans she had been wearing when she laid down beside him on the bed. "And why do you always wear these strange clothes when you appear? A woman in breeches is scandalous." But he was smiling.

_She opened her mouth and closed it again. She didn't understand at all._

"Will you tell me your name this time?" _He didn't know her name?_

"You've seen me here before?" _At least she was able to speak again._

"Many times. Usually right before a battle. You don't remember?" He took her hand and led her away from the clashes to sit at the edge of the field.

"No. I'm sorry. I don't."

"You probably won't remember this one either, then." His expression turned sad.

"But you always do?"

"Yes. Always." He said it quietly, to himself almost and was lost in thought for a moment.

"That troubles you."

"Yes. I think it does. I dream about you in the night and search for your face in the day, but you don't remember. That hardly seems fair." He touched her hair, just the ends for a moment, looking wistful.

She reached out and took his hand, holding it in hers, bloody or not. "Will you help me understand?" _She knew she was prying and should stop this, but she was beginning to get a picture in her mind of what his words meant and needed to be sure._

He smiled then, looking at her hand and his entwined. "My mother cast a spell. She said of all her sons, she worried about me as the eldest most. Her concerns were about my chances of finding a wife in this war. She wanted for me to see you, know your face when we finally meet. That was when you started popping into my dreams before a battle. You see, you are _mine_. And you are _so_ beautiful." The hand not already holding hers touched her face.

Elena got up and ran for the door.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Elena opened her eyes to find Elijah's arms wrapped like steel around her. They were nose to nose, his eyes searching hers the moment they opened with uncertainty.

"It seems you have learned everything now."

She pushed at his chest, intending only to be able to see him more clearly, but it got her nowhere. The steel of his arms gave not at all, tightening a bit, but not enough to injure. "No, don't pull away, Elena." There was pain there, in his voice.

She laid her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around him again. She closed her eyes thinking of the young man in that battlefield. He had been so young, so hopeful, so certain. Her heart ached for the young man that Elijah had been, lost in time forever. All she would ever know of him now were snippets of memories. So much time he spent waiting, waiting for her, while she was not yet even born. It was so unfair to him, and explained so much. And she wept for that brave young man with blood on his hands and hope in his eyes.

_Elijah felt certain that his ribs would crack from the pressure of his heart breaking. His unconscious revelations had frightened her of him at last. Even now he held her as she cried. He had never intended her to know this piece of his history. The fact that he had deceived her about their meeting and his affection for her early on in their acquaintance would be the final straw. She thought he was honorable, honest, but he could not tell her this thing, couldn't tell her years ago when they came together, and would never have told her now. It would be a horror for a young woman to think that some monster had waited lifetimes for her to be born. He didn't want to be that monster. Even if it was true._

_ Elena had lived under the misconception that their meeting, all that had come before, was chance. But he had known her the moment he drew in her scent. So many others had worn her face. Tatia, Katarina, Anastasia and countless others had littered time with that face and he had at the very least met all of them. At first, he had thought the face would be his answer, but with Tatia, the first, he had found how wrong he could be. She was faithless and fickle. Then Katarina was deceptive and cruel. These were not hearts he could love, so he had kept looking. And the dreams continued, always before a battle. Always she would look at him, appearing lost, and he would melt. She was always so sweet and kind in those dreams that he knew she could not be cruel or faithless._

_He began, then, to see that the clothing his lady appeared in had been an indicator to who she was as much as her features and frame. When ladies began to wear pants, as his lady did when she would appear, in the 1920's he had been thrilled. Little did he know then that he had still had another 70 years to wait before she would be born. _

_The day he met her at last, the dreams had stopped until this one, tonight. Another lie to Elena was that he didn't dream. He hadn't been willing to risk her efforts to see his dreams, rather than just fabricate one for him, for fear of what she'd find. This all now justified his fear._

_He had stopped looking, honestly, the day that he had received the message from Trevor and Rose about their attempt to make peace and that they had something he should see. Never had he expected to walk into that old, abandoned house and find his lady there, looking at him with wide frightened eyes. His every instinct that day had been to cart her away, after waiting so long, not for his brother at all, but for himself. When the Salvatores had taken her from him, he had been given time to think through how best to proceed. Force wouldn't get him her heart. He would have to earn that. _

_And so the dance had begun. _

_He remembered his horror at the Gilbert lake house when she had sunk a blade into her abdomen to get away from him. He had even dared her to do it, telling her he had to call her bluff. That was a mistake he would never make again. After so long alone, his own horror had echoed in his words, in his actions. His concern for her had nothing to do with Klaus' needs or desires and everything to do with his own. This was how she had so easily slipped under his defenses and sunk that blade into his chest that day._

_He learned that day that she was not only lovely and kind, but also had a steel rod for a spine. She had strength that men ten times her size would never be able to match. _

_His. She was his, damn it._

Elena felt the tension in him increase as she cried. He did not loosen his grip, holding her firmly against his chest. His breathing had stopped altogether. He would forget to breathe sometimes when he was very distressed. She had noticed this about him before only a handful of times. He didn't actually need the breath anymore, as all vampires didn't need it, but it was always unsettling when he would go completely still that way. She wanted to see him, see his eyes, his face, but when she again attempted to push away, he stopped her. He held her head against his shoulder and chest. Her tears had stopped, but he was so upset he wouldn't let her go. She turned her face into his neck, pulling in his warmth and his scent, uncertain how to comfort him. She found his neck warm and damp from her tears and kissed him there, licking away the salt. He moved against her for the first time, gasping in surprise at her lips and tongue against his skin.

_Fearing this might be the last time such intimacy would happen between them. Elijah bared his heart to her._

Sliding one hand up to cup the back of her head, he groaned. He pulled his head to one side and pressed her there against him, baring his throat for her. He was offering, and she moved without hesitation, kissing a line along his throat to where she could see and sense and smell his jugular pulsing beneath his skin.

Swiftly she opened her mouth wide and sank into him. So many emotions at once swamped her as the rhythm of her heart paused, stuttered and began to match his. Love, pain, shame, frustration and fear all fell in on her at once. It was like standing on the beach during a tidal wave with crest after crest forcing you under and up again for another round. Although they had done this since the night Elijah came after her, for the first time it was as if a window had opened into him, allowing her to see clearly.

_Elijah's hips lifted off of the bed as she pulled from the wound. His rumbling groans filled the room as she sank into his heart and his body responded. Without even being aware, he loosened the steel bands that held her to him and writhed beneath her, surrendering. _

He thought he was a monster and that she would finally recognize it now, too. He thought she would want away from him after seeing that he had lived thousands of years waiting for her, like some dark villain in a horror movie. He had lied to protect the spell his mother had cast, certain of Elena's rejection if she knew that they belonged together and that she hadn't any real choice in the matter. It was fated and unavoidable, even. He also believed she would rebel against that, against him, now that she knew.

She also saw the reason for his withdrawal from her over the last day or so. He was concerned about the coming battle and the lives of her friends and family. Having initiated the battle and drawn the lines, he felt responsible and feared her pain if someone should get hurt because of his failure. With his family, acceptance was always based on performance. Now, with Elena, the stakes seemed higher. He had never gone into a battle feeling he had so much to lose.

She broke the connection and tipped her head back in the hand that loosely held her against him. Her mouth still red from his blood, she hovered over him, waiting for him to open his eyes. When he did he found her looking at him with tender eyes. She said "This changes nothing, Elijah. Nothing at all. I will never blame you for what came before, or any of what is to come. We are partners in all of it now. We rise or we fall together tomorrow and every day after. Just as you said so long ago, I am yours." He had gone still, searching her eyes as if he didn't quite dare believe her.

"_But I lied to you." He saw something flit across her face then. Pain._

"_I know you did, Elijah. And it hurts. But I understand why you did what you did. You just underestimated me, that's all. It's forgiven. Gone. Just that simple." She shrugged. There would be no storing it away for future reference, future use against him. With her words, he knew he would never hear of it again. _

_He had so much to learn from her._

_Amazing. Woman. His. Woman._

He took her face in his hands, looking up at her in wonder. When he was able to speak, all he said was "I don't deserve you."

She beamed at him. "Of course you do." Her tone was encouraging. "_Surely_ you must've been a very bad man at least once or twice in all those years…."

XXXXXXXXXXX

The group assembled to leave and found that Suzette had been successful in the small mission they had given her. Brave girl.

The three witches that worked to protect the Werewolf Council also owned a small shop in the outskirts of Washington D.C. Bonnie had worked day and night for two days to create a spell that would disarm those witches for forty-hours. The only problem they had was the only delivery had to be a human. A plain old average human. The spell required it, and the witches would've smelled anything but a human from a mile away near their shop anyway.

Suzette's answer to going into this on her own was a fist in the air and an emphatic "Humans rock!" punctuated with a grin. She was thrilled to do something other than sit on her hands now that the computer research portion of the work was done.

Damon, being Damon, smiled at Suzette's enthusiasm and said "They also taste great and are less filling." Suzette slugged him and he laughed. Evidently Elena's sister in law and Damon had become friends somewhere along the way while she wasn't looking.

And so, Suzette had wandered into a small magic shop in D.C. and opened her bag at the counter to pay for her purchases. When she did, dust flew up out of her bag, caught her unaware and made her sneeze three times, once for each of the witches. They never even saw it coming.

Bonnie said the spell would work like a virus and by the time they arrived in Great Bend all three witches would be ill, and powerless. Bonnie was a genius.

And Bonnie also wasn't coming. After much argument, Elena had convinced their friend that if she was there, she would be putting herself at risk by revealing the level of her power to other witches. Even she knew that was dangerous. If any coven had any clue how strong she was, they would band together in their efforts to bring her down, fearing that the power at her hands would corrupt. It was a defense mechanism designed for just such an occasion as Bonnie.

As long as they knew nothing about her, she was safe.

But the whole thing made Bonnie angry. They were going to need her, was her argument. And she was right. So they found another way.

Elena and Bonnie had been bonded together, much like the bond they had used during the explosive night in the woods. Bonnie would be able to see through Elena's eyes. Elena would be able to hear and understand Bonnie. If defensive magic was required, Bonnie would say the spells. Elena would repeat them and Bonnie's presence, bonded to her friend, would make the magic work. But it still made her angry_. Her friends were risking their lives for one another, and she risked nothing._

XXXXXXXXXX

And so, at three AM, in a private portion of Richmond International Airport, Stefan, Caroline, Damon, Elijah, and Elena boarded a Boeing 737 Business Jet owned by Elijah. The very private flight plan would land them at the Great Bend Municipal Airport in approximately an hour and a half. They left a very angry Bonnie standing on the tarmac with power popping around her, even from the ends of her hair.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The strategy was to eliminate all of the council members in one night. They were able to estimate that the council itself had twenty seats. Some of the members had held their seats for decades. Jonah Walker had held his for an indeterminate period. Elena had suggested eliminating Jonah only, considering he was the leader, but Elijah shook his head. If they brought down the council leader, the council's only response could be a strike back on those responsible. Them. The resulting war would rage for decades and Elijah had seen just this sort of strategy fail many times. Better to do just as Elena had threatened Jack, eliminate the entire council and let the werewolves scatter to the wind in their disorganization. Her words that night had proven prophetic. This left them with little choice about the council members. The other group to consider would be the security team that would be guarding the meeting. They could leave no one alive. Not one.

And so the friends and family gathered one last time, again on tarmac, to finalize plans and split up. When their portion of the plan was finished, they would return to this spot and wait for the others. The plane would lift off no later than nine thirty am, one and a half hours after the council meeting was due to begin regardless of who had returned.

_Just thinking about the implications of that made Elena shiver in dread._

Each of them had a five square mile portion of the surrounding land around the courthouse to sweep in preparations. They each carried cell phones and would report to Elijah what they found. They were looking for indicators of werewolf activity, carcasses, large deep claw marks in trees or foliage and (_Elena shuddered again, but in disgust this time at the thought._) the inevitable marking of territory that wolves tend to do tracing each individual scent. The information would give them a good idea of how many of the werewolves present were able to transform before the full moon – an indicator of their strength and age. The information would also give them an idea of how strong their enemies would be when it came time for hand to hand confrontations, which were inevitable.

Their target was the council meeting scheduled for eight am at the Barton County Courthouse. The courthouse, centrally located in Great Bend was built in 1912 and suited the purposes of the council, and incidentally, Elijah, perfectly. Each of the great windows, numbering thirty one on each of four sides, was covered in ornate iron bars that sealed intruders out, and council members in. _A slow, wicked smile spread across Elijah's face at the thought._

Each of them had memorized the map of the area and the blueprints for the building. The council met on every other full moon on the nearest Sunday. The full moon was in two days. Most of the werewolves would be stronger than humans but would not be transforming because it was daylight, even if they were less hindered by the moon than others. The older the werewolf, the less they were limited by the phases of the moon. Some werewolves could live up to two, sometimes three hundred years possibly longer. Elijah's information suggested that Jonah Walker was one of these older, stronger werewolves. He was possibly the oldest and by reputation, he ruled the council with an iron fist. Regardless of his age, everything they could find suggested that no werewolf could transform without the power of the moon and the cover of darkness.

No time was wasted by any of them. They combed the area, gathering what information they could from the surrounding area, unseen by anyone. They were quiet, fast, thorough and Elijah was the lynch pin that held them all together as he also combed a five square mile stretch just as the others, stopping occasionally as his phone buzzed in his pocket. Elena found evidence of three separate wolves in her area. Two carcasses for one, a messy eater and a glutton. And two areas of urine markings. Each had a separate scent and she gathered samples so they could cross reference when they met again. Their conclusions after comparing would give a firm number of strong werewolves in and around that meeting. Slipping them into the bag at her waist, she kept moving. After several hours, the group gathered outside the city limits and brought the samples they had found comparing scent to be certain each represented a separate wolf. Three were eighteen in all that had recently transformed in this area.

The sun had been up for a while and the day was clear and bright. The group made their way toward the vast courtyard surrounding the Courthouse. They moved quietly, no conversation, no ribbing. Each of them understood what was at stake and took their role very seriously. The building was a massive four story structure made of stone with a pillar at each of four corners providing stability to the structure. The roof was flat with and met punctuated by the flat elevated tops of each of those same four pillars. The courtyard around the building, for half a mile in each direction lacked any real cover at all, decorated only with small trees and bushes, that and a parking lot. There were four doors in, one on each side and a single staircase that stretched from the underground level all the way to the roof. A single door opened to the roof. God bless early twentieth century architectural design and its simplicity.

Elena saw for the first time the iron bars covering each of those windows, and smiled.

The plan was simple. Caroline, Stefan and Damon were to take positions at each of the exits on the three sides of the building, north, south and east. The west side was the front entrance. At the signal Bonnie and Elena had arranged, Elijah would enter the front door and move through the building searching out the leader leaving Elena to guard the west entrance. Bonnie and Elena would force the others out the exits. Since there were an unknown number of staff and security, and the faceless twenty council members, they would not be able to determine identities. Simply put, no one could pass. Elijah would eliminate the leader and sweep the building for stragglers. When the building was empty, they would sweep the grounds and track anyone that might have made it past them in any resulting confusion.

They approached quietly, moving across the ground swiftly, heading for their posts when the ground beneath their feet began to buckle and move. Elena felt the skin across her arms prickle.

Casting her eyes upward, she saw a lightning strike. Four people, one standing on each of the four pillars were looking down, hands cast skyward. They had backup for their witches. Damn it. They were phenomenon witches, using lightning, earthquakes to funnel their power. Bonnie was thinking they were strong and this could be very bad. They had thought when they eliminated the three in D.C. that the magic work was basically done. Not so.

In that moment, all hell broke loose on the ground around them.

Stefan, Caroline and Damon all three screamed in pain. Elena turned and found that each of them was burning in the light of the sun above them. Smoke was rising from blackened, wrinkling flesh and excruciating pain was punctuating every scream as they all three hit the ground writhing.

Elijah realized what was happening. "Their daylight rings have been neutralized!" He was running, attempting to cover Caroline, the closest to him.

Elena covered Damon and was reaching for Stefan. She had no cover to offer them, nothing to hide the people she loved from the destruction of the sun.

Echoing in her ears, she heard Bonnie for the first time. She was shouting, at the top of her lungs. "Elena, Cedo cessi cessum!" "Elena, Yield." Elena dropped her hands and stood. And for a time, she knew no more.

Elijah watched his beloved Elena erupt in flames like the wick of a candle. Yellow and white heat licked up her clothing, across her hair, wrapping her completely for a moment while he screamed in horror. "ELENA, no!"

She turned to him then. The flames opened up as she took a single step toward him and she put a single finger over her lips. Her eyes were no longer brown or red. They were golden, popping with power. She turned to the three on the ground and held a single hand palm up in the air. "Nox." A darkened ball hovered over her hand. She slapped her two hands together and the darkness seemed to splatter like water and spray the three on the ground.

Damon realized the pain had stopped. Darkness had enveloped him like a warm cloak, sucking the light away so that the rays of the sun wouldn't reach his skin anymore. The other two had quieted as well. He could see them through his own darkness. They appeared as if standing in a black whole, void of light. He could see around him, but his eyes were sharper, penetrating the darkness around him first. He saw Elena then, wrapped in fire, wearing it like a flowing gown stretching from her shoulders to pool around her feet on the ground, singeing where she walked. Her hair had worked free of the braids she wore and whipped in the wind created by the fire all around her. Damon's horrified knee jerk reaction was that she was burning up in the sun, then he recalled the day in the courtyard when she had taken off her ring for him. Looking more closely, he saw Bonnie's eyes looking back at him. Bonnie's eyes looking at him out of Elena's features Was. Just. Creepy.

Elena's body turned to the witches standing on their pedestals above the courthouse. She burned a path across the courtyard with her approach and the ground shook under her feet as the four above attempted to gather strength for a second attack, but now Bonnie was angry. Both hands before her, she seemed to scoop some of the fire she wore together to hold in one hand. She knelt, whispering "Terra" as a handful of stone and dirt lept into her palm from the ground the other witches were punishing with their earthquakes. She rolled the two hands together, one with earth, the other with fire together in her hand like a child making a mud ball and tossed it up into the air, once, twice. With the third it seemed to blow up and away disappearing into the clouds above the building that had not been there a moment before.

A few hundred yards away, molten fireballs began to rain from the sky onto the roof of the courthouse. The ground continued to rumble below them, but now it was punctuated with screams.

_Bonnie felt a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing that those damned witches weren't on their pedestals anymore._ She _could still see them, even though they were no longer displayed for all the world. They couldn't hide from her. The light around them lent her its eyes._

_Elijah approached Elena's body cautiously from behind. He had never seen a witch possess someone before, but with the bond that she and Elena had established, he supposed it was possible. Terrifying, but possible. His heart had nearly stopped in horror. He heard Elena's voice saying "Aeris." As she made a small fist in the air and pulled toward her chest._

Bonnie ripped the air from the lungs of her enemies. The four witches on the roof were no more. The shaking stopped, as did the molten rain. The darkness faded around Stefan, Caroline and Damon. Their daylight rings were working again.

Bonnie stepped back, and Elena had her own eyes again. And her legs gave way. And Elijah caught her.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Elena took three deep breaths, still wrapped in Elijah. He held her with his lips were against her cheek, but he didn't move. He appeared to breathing her in.

"I'm alright now, Elijah. I just went weak for a second. Let's finish this."

"Are you certain?" He had moved just far enough away to search her face with wide, anxious eyes.

"Yes" She kissed his mouth with warmly tender, loving contact meant to reassure. But Elijah's response wasn't warm or tender, he pulled her to him more firmly, sinking into her mouth with a singular purpose, settling the desperation in his heart that began when he'd watched her go up in flames. He delved into her mouth hungrily and Elena went up in flames again, but this time they made their own heat. After a moment, he pulled away. "No more fire for you, alright?"

She smiled, "Not unless it's from a match you lit." He smiled then too and pulled away.

Back to the plan.

After a minute, everyone started again for their positions. The building stood quiet now. The council meeting had already started, and Elijah could only assume that the members inside assumed that when the shaking had stopped that their witches had won. They didn't even bother to check the status of the battle. _Such pride might prove unhealthy. _

And so, at the west side entrance, Elijah and Elena stood. The others were waiting at their respective exists for the signal.

_"Nemus extermino." Bonnie spoke the words to Elena and Elena repeated them, one hand aloft. As planned, every surface in the old courthouse that contained wood of any kind erupted in flames. Elena then turned to Elijah, touched his face with a gentle hand and said "Salvus." The power rippled across his skin, reminding Elijah of long ago and his mother's loving eyes before madness removed all but a thirst for power. He would be able to move freely now through the fire Bonnie had ignited. Already screams rang out from inside the building, piercing the silent, sunny day. _

_ There would be no emergency response to the fire. Stefan had been assigned the area of town that included the one, small fire station. If a call for help did get out, the firemen would find all of their tires mysteriously flat._

_ Elijah entered the building, noting that even door frames had erupted. Hand rails for the stairs burned, and he could see other materials taking the fire and spreading it, curtains, drywall. Bonnie had chosen her spell very well. He passed two werewolves, heading for the front door to make an exit. Thinking they would both be facing Elena, he lashed out with a hand as they passed and the larger of the two lost his head in his haste._

_ Most of the werewolves were coming in waves down a single narrow flight of stairs. Unable to obtain a photograph of their leader, he was forced to go with Jack's description of the man he sought. Elijah surveyed the exiting council staff and members in search of a man with thick, white hair….and saw none. On his way up the stairs, four more large, and he sensed strong, male werewolves lost their lives to his hands in the confusion. A female had halted on the stairs, looking at him, and the blood on his hands. She was older, perhaps sixty, dignified and also strong. She recognized an enemy in him and lowered into a bristling crouch. Elijah paused on the landing below her and waited. She launched herself at him and he caught her at the neck with one hand, one quick wrench and her body flew against the marble of a far wall, sliding soundlessly to the floor._

_ Elijah continued up the stairs to the second floor, unchallenged this time. _

_ At the end of the hallway was a large, wooden set of ornate double doors. They stood open and burning. Deciding to start there, Elijah stepped past the flames that were building and growing now. A man stood among the flames, his long white hair blowing in the gusts of wind created by the wildfire around him. He wore jeans, a t-shirt and cowboy boots. As Elijah stepped past the threshold, the white haired man sucker punched him from the left, forcing Elijah back the span of four steps. By way of introduction, the man said "You must be Elijah." The man had a broad smile on his face._

_ Elijah smiled back. "Yes." He swung one arm broad, palm open and down at the man's chest, sending him flying up, over a set of burning wooden tables and landing hard against the burning wooden paneling the entire room was decorated with. "And I have been looking forward to this, Mr. Walker."_

Elena had begun the process of stopping the panicked council staff and members from exiting the front doors. Frightened eyes would take in her stance and that was all she ever gave any of them time for, unless they came out more than one at a time. Her speed gave her plenty of time, as each exited, to assure that none passed. She was forced, however, to steel her heart to their fear and pain. Elena used the fastest means available to her, heart, head, neck to make the end result as kind as she could make it.

The last three people out the door, though, had given her pause. Freezing her in place on the steps of the building. Three children. Two boys and a girl came running out together holding hands. Elena's first response was to allow them to pass, but she heard Elijah in her head "None shall pass. This is imperative." Torn between duty and compassion, Elena's chest ached. Then she caught their scents as a gust of wind exited the building. They were werewolves themselves. The thrust of that sunk in. These children were no older than twelve. And yet they were actively transforming werewolves. A werewolf only bore the brunt of the curse if they had ended another's life. This began their transformations. These children had killed. And given the chance, would kill again. Jonah Walker and the council were forcing children to kill someone, making them more powerful as they grew because the process of owning their wolf started so early. The horror of that sunk in, as the children, sensing danger, had each lowered to a crouch, their eyes glowing with yellow and green bands of color.

Steeling her heart against the fact that these were children, _Children!, _Elena took two steps toward them and disappeared from their sight altogether. Elena wasn't even aware that she when she appeared behind the first, a boy, it appeared she had materialized to the other two. She took the boy's neck in one hand and pushed until she felt the bones crack under her hand. He fell. The second, a girl, looked to run. One bound of two feet came up against the girl, planting on one side of her head, forcing the head back equally as suddenly as the first child's neck. The girl slumped, her neck also broken. The third child, a boy, seemed frozen in place. Tears of fear and dread slid down his face as he met Elena's eyes. Her chest ached, rippled, tore within her. It was a strange and incredibly painful feeling. In desperation, Elena pushed that away with a hard mental shove and _all emotional pain disappeared altogether_. Her fear, her worried love for her friends, her anxiety for this night and what would come after, all blew away like tiny flower petals in a windstorm. She smiled at the boy tenderly and covered her lips with one finger, signaling that the boy should calm himself. _Boy or not, he was the enemy._ _None shall pass._ She walked to him, as if to comfort him and saw relief shining in him. One arm came up and around his shoulders, she wrapped his neck so fast in one hand, he never saw it coming.

And then two more, women came out the door. Without thought or concern, Elena brought them down, continuing the process, but now without conscience at all. _How refreshing._

_Jonah stood and smiled, baring some teeth, while he wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. "My men were right. You are powerful."_

_ "You have no idea." Elijah leapt at him then, moving so fast that Jonah only saw him disappear, and then Elijah had his hands around his throat. _

_ But rather than Jonah's face registering fear or surprise, he looked beyond Elijah, out the window and smiled triumphantly. Elijah didn't know what that meant, but he wasn't going to give Jonah a chance to explain. And then he felt it, the man's skin, bones began to ripple and melt away under Elijah's hands. Elijah knew from experience that he couldn't kill a werewolf easily while it transformed. Bones were fluid during the transformation, unbreakable. And the heart was not accessible to remove because it was moving, adjusting during the change. He'd tried it before. Messy business, that. And how was Jonah transforming in the day? Elijah turned and saw what Jonah had been smiling about. A faint outline of the moon was still visible in the clear morning sky. And evidently that was all that this werewolf needed. Fascinating. _


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter 18_

_Elijah, ever interested in gathering new information, was momentarily distracted by the change that Jonah was able to manage in the dim presence of the moon in the morning sky. His enemy took that moment to grasp Elijah by one arm and his throat and cast him, easily toward the furthest wall of marble, head first. Elijah expected a hearty impact, but knew that he would walk away easily. In anticipation of the impact, he pulled his arms up, sheltering his face, he would need his eyes, and braced. And then he stopped within a breath of the marble in midair, hesitating for a moment before he opened his eyes to see himself hovering near, but not touching the wall. _

_ He thought of Elena and the light in her eyes as she had spoken the spell over him as he dropped soundlessly to the floor again. She had said only "Salvus" – safety. No parameters were established. "Salvus extermino" would have been safety from fire, which was the agreed upon spell that would be cast for their mission. Caught in his own memories, he had not noticed the difference at the time. His little wench had worked with Bonnie to cast a safety spell that would protect him from all the five elements within Bonnie's control. He roared with laughter at his devious, deceitful, loving wife._

_ As he turned, ready for more with the transformed werewolf, he found that this wolf, tall and grey from head to tail, was three hands taller than any other that he had ever seen. Its eyes were twin bands of green and yellow and looked back at him with intelligence. _

_ He flipped up and over the wolf's head, landing behind it, intending to break neck, back, whatever he could get his arms around. The heard the crack of the wolf's neck, and yet the animal kept coming, teeth snapping together, narrowly missing him several times. So breaking bones doesn't work for killing Jonah Walker. The healing for this werewolf would have to be nearly instantaneous for that to work. Amazing. Frustrating, but amazing. _

_ So Elijah tried another tactic. Noticing the span between the front paws of the wolf, as well as the extra distance from the marble floor below that made up its additional height, Elijah sprung._

_ Running at full speed at the wolf from the furthest point in the room, he whipped up the fire around him with his approach. The action confused the wolf. Wolves expected posturing, dominance maneuvering in a battle. But Elijah, a man with a singular purpose, dove gracefully into the space between the tall wolf's front paws and rotated to face upward as he __land__ed, sliding on the marble flooring to the wolf's delicate underbelly. Thrusting up with both hands into the ribcage that had previously been angled away from him, inaccessible, he now pulled back with a lung in one hand and a still beating heart in the other. His back stopped again before striking the marble wall from the momentum. He shook his head at Elena's surprise and laughed again. The wolf sputtered for a moment before falling over onto the stone with enough force to make the floor vibrate under Elijah. _

_Anticlimactic though it was, Jonah Walker was no more. He had expected more from this "leader". But considering the hubris Elijah found in all that Jonah Walker did, he should not have been surprised that the werewolf would think his transformation would easily win him the battle. There again, the werewolves had never seen a vampire like Elijah._

_Elijah was thankful for the leathers that he wore at Elena's insistence. Ruining a good suit always put him in a bad mood. _

_As planned, Elijah moved throughout the building ending any stragglers quickly. Some had been caught in the fire and left to suffer by their cohorts. Thinking of what Elena would do, he ended these quickly. The building was working toward a good blaze now. As he reached the roof, he checked the witches finding that they were all dead already, as he had expected when the tremors had stopped earlier. From this space, he could see the progress of the others as they defended their exits._

_Damon, at the east exit, had about a dozen bodies around him, all dead, and seemed to be waiting for others to emerge. Elijah could see one of the bodies had been transformed, because the corpse was nude. So there were more than just Jonah had that ability to transform under a daylight moon. Interesting. As Elijah watched, a black wolf leapt from the exit, pinning Damon to the ground for a moment. One fist to the jaw in an upper cut and the wolf made a yelp, falling back. Elijah watched Damon bound to his feet in pursuit as the wolf tried to gain better ground for a counter attack. Rushing the wolf, Damon made a leaping bound up and over, landing straddling the wolf's back and broke its neck cleanly in one snap. Before it hit the ground, the wolf was a human female, naked and now dead._

_At the south exit, Caroline was moving casually between two males. These two appeared to believe they had emerged from the building to find some easy prey. She was small enough that they had little to be concerned about. The bodies of some of their other comrades littered the ground around, but their arrogance could not connect the condition of their friends with this small, lovely blonde. Caroline was allowing them to move in close as if they would hurt her, playing the helpless, lost female. When the tallest one got close enough, Caroline smiled sweetly up into her hero's face as she tore his heart from his chest with one hand and handed it to him. The other one had no chance for an attack as she sprung, knocking him to the ground to do much the same with him. Elijah smiled to himself as he saw her fling the blood from her hands onto the ground with a grimace. He heard her say "I don't know how Elijah stands that. Bleccch!" He saw her wiping her hands on her last victim's t-shirt before she stood._

_At the north exit, Stefan was stealthily snapping necks as the contents of the building emerged. He was ever merciful, ending the victim with a swift wrench before the victim knew they were being attacked. He too had some dozen or so bodies littering the ground around him._

_At the east exit, Elijah found Elena in a graceful dance of death. The east exit was the main entrance and the place most likely to be exited in an emergency. They had been aware of this and placed their strongest there. With Elena's strength and stealth she would be able to maintain a vigil that the others would not be able to maintain for long. Elijah watched in wonder as she moved from one panicked and exiting werewolf to another with a well-placed foot or arms around a neck to snatch, or hands to the chest for a bit of impromptu cardiac surgery. Her movements seemed almost choreographed and he found himself thinking of Swan Lake, a very dark version of Swan Lake. She was beautiful to behold. He considered helping her, but she actually appeared to be enjoying herself, humming to herself lightly under her breath as she moved. There were easily thirty corpses around her in varying sizes from those small enough to be children to the larger, more massive men that seemed to mark werewolves in general, several of them were naked, and yet she hummed her death knell. _

_With the roof about to give out under him, he still stopped to think on all those years of waiting and how she was his partner, his equal in all things. And he found himself grateful for and awed of her._

_Landing a leap from the three story building in the fray, Elijah caught Elena's eye and smiled. But she only nodded. The last had fallen. _

_She said only "None have passed."_

"_The building is nearly consumed with Bonnie's spell now. There are none left in the building now."_

"_Should we check on the others then?" She seemed disappointed as she looked at the empty exit now. Was she wishing there would be more coming out?_

"_I just did. They are nearly finished as well." _

"_Should the bodies go back into the fire to avoid questions?"_

"_Yes, I think that would be wise." The two of them made quick work of tossing the bodies from the ground back into the first floor of the building. They then headed with the others to the other exits and did the same. They barred each of the doors afterwards with objects that will appear to have been carelessly left in the way of emergency exits resulting in "a Sunday morning blaze at the Barton County Courthouse that killed some sixty people". _

XXXXXXXXXX

On the flight home there was relieved celebration from everyone. Well, almost everyone. Elena watched as the others celebrated and pretended interest she didn't really feel. Bonnie's bonding spell was broken. She felt it snap the moment the boarded the plane. It was nice to have her own thoughts again.

A young woman that evidently worked for Elijah's company on the flight crew was handing out drinks. She must've been on the plane before as well, but Elena had been too tense to notice. Elena now watched the woman closely, her throat on fire. Before she knew what she was doing, she was soundlessly up and following the woman toward the back galley. All she needed was a moment alone and a quiet corner and this burning in her throat would stop. She could picture calming the girl, compelling her to not be afraid, tipping her head back and sinking into that smooth skin. The feel of the warmth and life filling her mouth. In anticipation, her fangs extended and before she could get much further, she was smack up against Elijah's chest.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Dear, let's please not eat the staff." Elijah whispered to her with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Elena looked up into his face, the face that only hours ago had been beloved to her and felt….nothing. Well, aside from frustration.

"I'm hungry, Elijah." It came out tightly, her jaw locked.

"Which is why we have blood bags in the refrigerator, Elena." Concern lit his features now as he led her to said refrigerator and opened it. "That employee's name is Heather. She has two children. A four year old girl and an eight year old boy. If it helps, think of her as a person. Push it down, sweetling." He was whispering into her ear urgently and she just wanted to hit him. Hard. Repeatedly. But he was stronger than her, would always be stronger than her. She would have to play along for now.

"Sorry." Her eyes returned to brown. "I guess I just lost it for a minute."

Elijah wrapped his arms around her. "You've been through a great deal today, already. It's to be expected." So damned understanding. How….laughable?

Part of her wanted to hug him back, some distant, long forgotten part. But right now she had to fight down laughing in his face. She felt no gratitude, no love, no pain, no regret. Only cursory emotions penetrated like anger, impatience, frustration. Only tactile sensations mattered, hunger, the desire for comfort, the need for sex. Damon had described what it meant to turn off emotions before for her, and now she understood. Nothing could hurt her, but nothing could reach her now, either. Not anymore.

She hadn't made a conscious decision to do this, she supposed it had happened when she had to kill those children. She remembered a great deal of pain, and then no pain at all.

Elena wondered what this would mean now. She couldn't go back to her life as it had been. And she wouldn't tell anyone what had happened because they would try to force all that guilt and pain back into her face again. She was free of it and right now that was all that mattered. Years of guilt, loyalty, duty stretched out behind her like a wake on time's river. She wanted to look forward to freedom from those things. The thought of going back appealed as the blood Elijah heated in a coffee mug for her did.

She found herself searching his handsome face for some shred of what she had felt only hours before. She found desire there, but nothing more. And felt no alarm at its absence. To love like that was consuming. Finding yourself unable to breathe without the other person was a hell in itself, a hell of dependence that she could damned well do without. But she still wanted him, and badly. She watched the leather move across his arms and chest, across his thighs as he walked. And she burned.

She finished her cup of blood and stood, taking him by the hand. "Is there an office you keep on this plane?" Her eyes must've told him what she wanted because he seemed surprised. "Now?" She tipped her head down, biting the end of one of her fingers lightly and cutting her eyes at him. All guile, telling him with a look that there were other things she would like to be doing with her mouth and it worked. He took her hand swiftly, leading her down a short hallway away from the others. She watched the leather move across his backside and fought the urge to run her hands over him right then and there.

"I'll never understand you." He was saying it through his own clenched jaw as he ran a hand across her cheek and up into her loose hair.

"Don't bother to try, then. Just feel." Elena ran her hands across the leather on his chest before pulling the zipper and loosening it. He was doing much the same thing. The room they were in was decorated in expensive paneling on all sides and had a set of book cases, filled with reference books anchored behind cases and a huge desk in the middle of the room. There was a couch at one end, longer than most, intended for resting during long flights, she was sure.

"We don't have long until we will be landing." He was saying as she pulled off his jacket and shirt.

"I don't care." Her hands across the fine hair on his chest made her shiver. Touching him made her happy. She remembered that. Still felt that. She stopped and took one flat male nipple into her mouth, sucking hard. "Awww God, Elena!" Instinctively his chest came up to meet her mouth, losing what semblance of control he had left. She lowered one hand to run across the leather zip of his pants. His hands were working hard to get below her clothes then too. She ran hands across his back, over his shoulders. So fine, so hard. So much of him, all of him. She wanted this. She backed up to the desk, sitting on it, raising one foot to prop beside her and he came to stand there, between her legs. Her leathers were gone now too, only some black lace panties left between them. She worked the zip of his pants and the button and trailed her fingers across the space below his navel, leaning in again to suck this time at the other flat nipple. He was breathing hard, gasping, drawing each breath through a complex series of shudders that she had caused with her attentions. Elena smiled in triumph. As she freed him of the pants, she ran both hands down across his backside, he did much the same, lifting her off the desk and into his arms by bracing under her backside. The black lace panties disintegrated. She never liked them much anyway.

One leg still up as he pulled her into his arms, having been propped on the desk, he pushed into her and she cried out at the sensation of fullness, throwing her head back.

"…shouldn't be here." He was saying something, but she only caught the last part. Always the duty with him. She bit his shoulder, drawing a bit of blood. They were standing, and he was inside her, wrapped in passion and was preoccupied? "Elijah, just feel me. Just feel. Let go." She was against the hard wall then and being lifted up. He was adjusting her, tilting her pelvis to take every last inch of him. She ran her hands up into his hair, pulling hard to get his mouth down on hers for a kiss of teeth and lips stretched thin in strain. And his hands were rough as well, pulling at her scalp, his strokes inside her brutal, violent and perfect. She let out a wail as her body reached its limit of sensation for the moment and set about a series of ratcheting convulsions that took him along with her into restful satisfaction.

Hm…they had been together for how many years and he never mentioned that he liked it rough? Interesting.

It would never be this good with anyone else. She would miss this.

She knew then what she had to do.

She sat down next to him as he was pulling back on his boots.

"I need to tell you something. We have a little problem." He froze, recognizing the tone that said you're-not-going-to-like-this.

"Tell me." She had his full attention now.

"I had to kill three children back there. They were werewolves." The horror of that statement and the implications sank in for Elijah while she waited in silence. He knew how she felt about children, or had felt.

"Are you alright?" He was searching her face, worry creasing his.

She shook her head.

"I've heard Damon and Stefan talk about it for years, Elijah, but I never expected it to happen to me. I feel nothing. It's all gone. Everything. And I didn't make a choice, it just happened. And I don't know how to fix it, or if I really want to fix it and watch all that pain drown me again." She took a deep breath as she watched horror spread across his face. "If you hadn't stopped me just now, I would've killed your Heather with the two children and never batted an eyelash."

He was silent, speechless.

She filled the silence with an "I'm sorry."

He met her eyes frankly. "No, you're not."

"No, you're right. I'm not sorry. It just seemed like the thing to say."

"What about us? This?" He motioned to the ring on his left hand.

"I still want you." It was all she could say, honestly.

He huffed a laugh. "Well, I guess that's something." Hurt was there, but she couldn't muster any sensation at the sight. She just watched it play there, behind his eyes, across his face while she waited to feel something, but nothing came.

"I'm telling you this because I need for you to either fix me, or kill me, Elijah. Or I will leave a path of bodies in my wake and no one but you would ever be able to stop me. You promised on my life that you wouldn't let that happen."

"Kill you?" His voice had risen to a shout.

It was at that moment that Damon stepped into the room and closed the door behind him taking in the fact that Elena was still naked and looking up at him like she evidently didn't care. "Nobody's damned well killing anybody, here. Have the two of you lost your freakin' sex crazed minds?"


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

_"Please. Don't look so shocked. The twin jet engines on this thing aren't enough to drown out the two of you. Seriously." Damon rolled his eyes and couldn't help grinning at Elena, still naked and unashamed on the lounger. It was not his smartest move when Elijah stood, all bristling husband. Fuck._

_Discretion being the better part of valor, and not wanting to get his ass kicked and all, he turned his back on them both. He thought he might like this new Elena minus the whole conscience thing but figured now was not the time to mention that._

_ "My point is, this can be undone."_

_ Elijah made a scornful noise. "I watched my brothers and sister one by one consumed by this. There was no true coming back once it was done." So Elijah had never been there himself, never let himself go for fear of what he saw his family become. Reason for the iron clad control, Damon supposed. Interesting. He knew something Mr. Wisdom-of-the-Ages did not._

_ This would explain the sound of Elijah's horror when Damon had accidentally overheard their conversation on his way back from the refrigerator. Damon forgot himself as he turned and looked Elijah full in the face then. "If I remember correctly, your family was a bunch of inhuman assholes, Elijah. Elena's different. Even though the differences in her are clear, it's not the end of the world. She flipped the switch of her emotions off, but we know how it happened. The fact that it wasn't a decision she made makes it all the easier. She just wanted away from the pain, and her vampire nature gave her that. Perfectly natural. Still fixable, though. And it's not really done until the pile of innocent bodies starts to stack up and she starts to like it. And even after that, she brought me back all on her own without really even trying. It can be undone. I think I even know a way. The only issue I would have right now is with containing her until it can be done. She stronger than Stefan and I combined. If we let her kill an ass load of people she might not be able to handle the regret when it's all done. She deserves better than that."_

"Hello? Still sitting here. Let's not talk about the monster like she's not in the room. It's just rude." Elena interrupted them standing up, proud, indignant and still naked.

"Get dressed, damn it!" They both yelled in unison.

She giggled at the thought of them agreeing on anything. _OK, good. She could still feel humor too. _Yeah, alright. Clothes. She sighed and went looking for what was left of her clothes. _Damned bossy vampires._

Everything in her had said she should run. She had even planned, the moment the plane touched down to just disappear without a word. There were two problems with that. One, Elijah would find her. He would always find her. And two, she had this need for him_. And somehow she didn't think Elijah would be open to the whole "booty call" thing. _

Elena knew she was taking a real chance telling Elijah and if she was honest with herself, there was more to it than just a snap decision. She thought long and hard about all he had been to her, what he had done for her and knew without a doubt that this powerful, wonderful man loved her beyond all. She also knew that the need between them was more than just an emotional one. It was also primal, which was why she could still feel the sexual pull. She would spend the rest of eternity looking for this with another and would probably never find it. Yes, loving was a burden, but it was also an outlet, a resting place she would never find alone.

She didn't want to die, and honestly didn't give a damn about a pile of innocent bodies stretching from here to Albuquerque. If it came down to it, she would fight him for her life, but if anyone could find an answer for this, he could. And her priorities? Sex with him, she cared about. Comfort she cared about. And she had promised him she would be honest with him rather than running the next time something came between them and some part of her still trusted him.

Dressed now, she found them in a deep conversation she wasn't following.

_"Two days, three tops is all I need." Damon was saying. Elijah didn't like to admit that this was beyond his experience, but clearly her friend was confident of this plan he had. He had not been around when these transitions had happened with his siblings, he just saw the bloody results. That had been his first thought, the blood and damage she would cause. And then, what he would have to do to stop her. Horror._

_ He shook Damon's hand. "If you can do this, I will be forever grateful."_

_ Damon shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "The hard part will be up to Elena."_

_ And so Elijah would be stuck to Elena like glue for the next two to three days._

XXXXXXXXXX

And so Elena spent two days in the same cell that Stefan and Damon had both been forced to use before for similar reasons. She was alone, furious and filthy. She wanted to take it apart, she was so angry, but they also dosed her with vervain periodically in the blood they gave her and left Elijah to stand guard, somewhere in the house. He didn't come down, didn't speak to her, like she was some sort of pariah. And if she could feel anything that would've hurt. _Fuck him._ Stefan and Damon both came at least to talk to her. They didn't open the door, knowing that she might've overpowered either of them easily and been gone.

She wished now she had done what she had intended and just run. _Trust, hell._

When the guys came to see her, she didn't ask about Elijah, because frankly, she didn't care. She just wanted the fuck out. But they knew that. They tried to distract her, stories of things going on with Jeremy, or Bonnie to pass the time. It appeared they still cared for her. She couldn't return it, but she could appreciate it. Sometimes they would talk and she would just close her eyes and wish them away. Eventually they would go away.

She was pretty sure she had never been so angry.

And then, on the beginning of the third day, something changed. A new scent in the house, familiar, but she couldn't place it. It was sweet and smelled a bit like…..well, her. What the hell _was _that?

She heard footsteps down the hallway. Footsteps and sniffles. Her own scent was very strong now, clean, fresh and mixed with citrus perhaps. Oranges? Lemons?

She heard a box scrape and saw two hands grasp the bars, but she stayed where she was. She felt like she had seen it all now. The vervain they were giving her caused hallucinations and pain, sweating. She never knew what was real and what wasn't anymore. She was pretty sure she would die in this cell. Which, with the pain, was welcome.

Little green eyes look back at her, brown hair with golden highlights. The little green eyes were even more bright than usual because they were red rimmed. Milla. Elena hadn't seen her since the bike journey she and Elijah had made. She and Milla had swum together, played together like they were both eight. She smiled at the memory.

Something in Elena's chest cracked.

There was a snuffle and she looked up, meeting the green eyes from across the dirty little room.

"Miss 'Lena. Is that you?" The little voice asked.

It took Elena a minute to find her voice, so she nodded. The little eyes filled with tears again.

"I've heard all those men talk about you to my Daddy. They say that something bad happened and that you don't love me anymore." Milla's voice broke.

She pulled her little shoulders up. "I don't believe them." Elena heard the clank of the lock as it turned. After a minute and some considerable struggle, Milla opened the door just enough to come into the room with her. Elena stayed where she was, mesmerized, frozen.

"See, my Mama died after I was born. Daddy says it wasn't my fault. But I never had a Mama, 'cept him and well….." her sweet high voice trailed off for a minute. "And now you. Daddy says you're my God Mama. It means a lot to him. He told me it meant a lot to you, too." The tears were rolling down Milla's face now, but no sobs, silent tears of real loss and real pain for one so young. Milla sat on the floor in the middle of the room.

"I love you, Miss 'Lena. Please don't leave us all alone again. The other pack Mama's are nice, but they aren't mine. I want _you_. I'll be good, I promise. I'll do whatever you want. Just don't go. _Just love us back_." She covered her little face with her hands then and Elena stopped being able to see for the tears streaming down her own face. Without any other thought than to hold her, Elena crawled to her and wrapped her arms around the little girl.

And it all came crashing back. Those beautiful children, lost to all hope, lost to all humanity dying at her hands. She couldn't save them. Couldn't help them. Could only kill them and end what horrors they would've become. Elijah's pain when she couldn't feel for him the love they had shared for so long, that he had waited so long for. Her own pain when he turned his back on her because of what happened, what she would've become, leaving her to rot in this hell all alone. Not good enough. She would never be good enough for him. She pulled Milla into her lap wrapping her in both arms, rocking back and forth as they sobbed together and Milla clung. She clung.

"Of course I love you, beautiful girl." She whispered into the golden brown hair. "Please don't cry. Shhhhh…." She rubbed her back, sobbing right along with the little girl.

She heard then feet beating down the hallway, yelling. Damon and Elijah were calling for Milla. She could smell their desperation as they rounded the turn that would lead to her cell and their fear as they saw the door was open just a crack.

They both rushed through the door, Elijah smashing the wooden box that blocked the way in his effort to get into that cell. How ironic that _now_ he wanted in. More pain knifed through her at that thought separating muscle from bone.

She chose to meet Damon's eyes, her own awash with tears. "Milla's fine. I would never hurt her." But Damon knew what it meant.

"It's all back, isn't it?" He had dropped to the floor beside them with a ghost of a smile on his face.

She could only nod. She felt Elijah approach from behind and turned on him, Milla still in her lap, the little face plastered against her neck. "No." He stopped in midstride, confusion clouding his face. "I wasn't good enough for you an hour ago. I'm no different now. Don't touch me." Tears were rolling fresh down her face at the words. "I think you should just go. I'm among friends. I don't need you. There'll be no killing needed today. I free you of your promise."

And just like that he was gone.


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Note: **

**Just so you know, I cried all the way through writing the last half of chapter 20. The first half was great because Damon always makes me laugh. But the bad that happened put Elijah and Elena where they needed to be for a more solid foundation. So it had to be done. I've had emails and reviews of distress and I'm right there with you. It broke me up too. **

**Also, because of this chapter I have adjusted the rating for this story to M. It might have been overdue, but I finally admitted that it needed to be done. I hope I don't offend anyone. I still try to avoid graphic descriptions because I think they are uncouth. Hopefully you will enjoy.**

Chapter 21

Elena stayed with the Salvatores for the first day while the vervain worked its way out of her system. She hadn't known such pain in so long that lying in a bed, sweating that stuff out had been excruciating. Milla sat with her when she could stand to sit still that long. Such a beautiful little girl and she loved Elena too. It was a balm to her battered heart. She tried to talk Jack into moving them both closer, but he would have none of that. He said that they could visit whenever it was possible and after all, she had the whole running thing. She could be in New Mexico in a couple of hours with a couple of bags of blood if it came to that. But the idea of having the little one close appealed so much. She felt a bit like the little girl was a life line right now, but respected her father's decision and watched them head back home with tears and hugs and promises on the second day after Milla rescued her.

She learned that bringing Milla here had been Damon's plan all along, but the intention was to introduce her to Elena slowly and under controlled circumstances. The men were in deep conversation about how best to do that without risking harm to the girl when she had overheard and taken matters into her own small hands unconvinced that Elena would ever hurt her. And she'd been right.

After Jack and Milla were gone, Elena moved back into the house in Richmond. She couldn't stay at Damon and Stefan's forever although they both assured her that she was welcome to do just that if she wanted. Honestly she ached for her own things. She figured that even in divorce settlements, the wife got the house. _Did vampires get divorces?_ She went home. She wanted comfort. She found Ember there, waiting for her, proudly guarding a nest full of chicks nestled in a high wall on the east border of their land. _Her land._

She chose a different room. She couldn't face their bed alone. She moved all of her things out of the room they had shared together and tried to remember to breathe in and out. That was about all she could face at this point.

The third night in her new bedroom she dreamed of him. It had been five days since she had seen his face.

She was at the lake that she and Elijah had walked around together in her youth. It was a clear night and she was in the water, naked and floating on her back, looking up at the stars. They were scattered across the sky, so bright in the darkness. The reflection in the water made her appear to be floating among those stars. This was as close now as she would ever get, she was sure. She was thinking about a story she had been told as a child. The story went that the stars were actually pin pricks in a dark veil. The light from those stars seeped out of heaven through the holes. Just a tiny sample of what waited on the other side. She had seen it once herself, the great green fields, the light, the mighty apple tree and someone in white waiting for her. She would never see that now, or doubted she would. She wondered if her parents were walking around in that light now. She ached for them. They had loved her no matter what happened. Unconditionally. The way she had thought Elijah loved her.

From the shore, she heard a soft voice. "If anyone should see the other side, the heavens, it would be you, Elena. I took that from you." He was there, on his knees in the grass at the lakeside, in the darkness, watching her.

Her throat closed at the sound of his voice in the darkness. He sounded empty, pained and she loved him. His pain was hers even now.

"Before I would've said it was all worth it. Now I'm not so sure." She called back to him from across the lake. He looked away at her words, up into the sky.

"Do you know the story of the constellation Lyra, Elena?"

"No, Elijah. I don't think so."

She swam across the top of the water toward him and emerged to sit beside him on the grass. She loved his stories. She was still naked, but he gave her a blanket to wrap herself in.

"Lyra was a harp created by the god Hermes. It traded hands several times before ending with Orpheus. Orpheus' wife's name was Eurydice and he loved her to distraction. When Eurydice died suddenly, Orpheus, brokenhearted, used the harp to make beautiful music and descended into hell to go after his wife. She would know the sound. Hades, the king of hell, loved the music and Orpheus offered a deal that he would continue to play for as long as he could and when he stopped Hades would give him his wife back." He paused, studying her profile as she looked into the stars.

"Hades, being tricky, had one condition. Orpheus had to continue to play all the way home and never look back to see if Eurydice was following him. If he made it all the way home without looking back, she could stay. And so Orpheus played. And the music was so beautiful that even the trees stopped swaying in the wind and the birds stopped singing to listen. And his Eurydice followed him right out of hell. He could hear her soft footfalls behind him. He would worry and grow tense when the trail home led across soft ground that didn't echo her steps. Still he played. Finally, in the last miles to their home, the soft green grass made no sound at all when someone stepped and Orpheus hadn't heard her steps at all for a very long time. Heart aching, lonely and fearful, he began to doubt. He doubted his playing, his deal with Hades, even Eurydice and her love that would recognize his love song and follow. And so, being human, infallible, lonely and afraid, he turned to see if she was behind him just as they were reaching their home. Eurydice had been right behind him, rejoicing to be home and her eyes widened in horror at what he had done. The music stopped. And Eurydice's eyes closed in pain and horror and then she was gone again, back to hell. Orpheus was left weeping in the soft spring grass all alone again. Hades had won after all. "

He tucked the blanket around her legs carefully. "But Zeus had been listening to the beautiful love songs and, although he could not override Hades, he cast the Lyre into the sky as a memorial to the love in the music played that day so that no one would ever forget." He pointed to the sky, to six stars strung together making up the constellation. She looked at it, wondering at the story.

He moved around to face her, still on his knees.

"Has our music stopped, Elena?" He was careful not to touch her.

The idea of this wonderful, beautiful man on his knees for anyone broke her heart and she rose to her own knees to join him. She touched his face.

"No, Elijah. It still plays." He closed his eyes for a moment and his chest heaved.

"I couldn't see you. I didn't honestly think that there was any way back. I had never seen it work, and was trying to prepare myself to do what I had promised rather than let you be a monster." He turned his face into her hand and kissed the palm lightly. "I was in hell, too. But I left you all alone, and I'm so sorry."

She rose to her knees and kissed him then and he met her kiss like a drowning man offered a life raft. "I thought you were rejecting me for being a monster. That I was marked, dirty for what had happened."

"Oh Sweetling, no, never that." His hand went up into her wet hair. "You are what I've made you. You bear no blame in any of it."

"Please come home, Elijah." She leaned forward and whispered it into his ear. "We'll start again."

He looked at her strangely. "You know I'm real, don't you?"

"Of course I know." She smiled. "I've pulled this trick often enough myself. And never in a million years would I have imagined you like this." She gestured to him, still on his knees.

She took his hand earnestly, needing this to be spoken. "There is one thing, though."

He tensed, even in the dream and she heard thunder far off.

"I think I should limit my violence to being on a page rather than in life. I can defend myself, certainly, but taking life is something that wears on me. I lose bits of myself. And I never want to be there again."

He gusted out a laugh. "Is that all? Of course. You are so wise, little one."

"Then you know where I am. It's not our bed until you join me. Join me."

Elena opened her eyes to the sound of the door opening. Elijah was making his way across the room in the darkness. She opened her arms to him and he gave a great sigh. "I want to just hold you tonight. Just to be close and feel you, surround myself in your scent." He pulled her across the large bed to the middle and wrapped his arms around her taking a deep breath with his face in her hair. He held her to his chest, from behind but after a time, she felt him tense against her again.

"What?"

His voice, when it came, was wary and guarded. "You told me you didn't need me." Something in his deep voice made her think of the young man on the battlefield so long ago. This had injured him as nothing else could, and deeply.

"I meant only that I didn't need for you to kill me to stop me from being a menace." She kissed his hand. "Even furious and hurting, I needed you. I will always need you."

The tension drained out of Elijah at her words and they both slept, wrapped in warmth and love and forgiveness.

Elena woke to Elijah wrapped around her like a vine around an old tree. Proof of his body's interest prodded her thigh as he still slept. She wanted to turn in his arms, but his hold was very tight and she couldn't move without waking him. She contented herself with feeling his chest rise and fall in sleep and the sensation and scent of him, Elijah and fresh sage, was all around her. How she loved him, and somehow knowing that he was imperfect, just as she was, made them matched as they had never been. A certain measure of awe had always tinged the love she felt for him. The kind of awe that said she didn't deserve him. Now she saw that they deserved each other. Perfectly balanced.

She slept again.

She woke to his hands running across her possessively from hip to thigh. When he felt her wake, he didn't give her time to think, he just rolled her forward onto her belly and forced her knees up under her. She had been naked, preferring lately to sleep that way. The vervain still caused her night sweats, even now. Masterful, for it to be so early, he took her hands and grasped them around the post of their bed indicating that she should hang on there. Her fuzzy brain didn't understand yet what was happening, moving only at his hands and instigation. He spread her thighs apart, swatting one lightly before he kissed the spot. And then he was face up under her, his breath against her belly and her thighs. His stubble scratched her, but it was lovely and then he raised his face into her body in what could only be termed worship. He ran his tongue and lips along her, kissing and licking as he went. Her thighs began to tremble with the strain of being still. Her breathing came fast, surprised and wondering. She made a low, keening sound in the back of her throat and felt him pause to press a smile to her inner thigh, his whiskers tickling her.

He began again and found the tiny bundle of nerves that made up all her need. When he pulled sharply there with his lips, her hips bucked of their own accord and she called out a cry she didn't recognize. And then he was gone.

But only for a moment.

Elijah tilted her hips up and entered her without warning, sinking into her from behind as far as it was possible. She cried out again as she had before, and still hung on. Her addled brain seemed to think the post was her anchor somehow. He kissed her back, her neck. His hands were everywhere, across her breasts, between her thighs as he moved in her and she was lost. Face down now in the sheet, she panted as her body rippled, bringing on the rippling of his. And so, here was another variance to the act of loving. Who would not love this man? Forgive this man anything?


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's note: I just love Damon. A very fun character to write for. And he means well, bless his heart. **

Chapter 22

And so they tried to go back to where they were. She loved him, needed him. And he loved and needed her. They could both forgive, but the trust had been shattered.

In the condition she had been in before, she would've walked away from everything. And Elijah knew it, had seen it before, many times in others. She saw that he was waiting for it to happen again. He seemed to walk warily around her, expecting the monster to emerge at any time. Too many years of disappointment left him always waiting for the other shoe to fall.

And for her, she leaned on him less, part of her believing that if the going got tough, he might distance himself as he had before, leaving her to handle things alone. He sensed the distance. She was pretty sure he was waiting for her to leave a stack of bodies lying around the house, or something. In her more bitter moments, she thought he couldn't stand the idea that he had been wrong and was waiting to be proven right. Of course, that wasn't true and she knew it, but there again, she was bitter.

Really, they were both still in that dark, dirty cell.

And Elena had no idea how to fix it. It took years to build up to where they were. And then it took only days to destroy it. That's what it felt like.

But they stayed, ever circling one another with polite smiles and warm touches in the night. The night time and the touching was about all they had left now.

Damon sat at her kitchen table drinking coffee with her. He hated coffee and she knew it so she mixed it with bourbon for him as a concession. And he appreciated that. She was reworking an angle on a book and needed some input, to discuss the villain she was building from the inside out. After what she had been through, she had some insight of her own, but needed more. He made a good sounding board after having walked around as one for a century or so.

"Just because your villain is going to kill an ass load of people doesn't mean that he has to hate them, or himself for that matter. He can have motivations, passions outside of his work, the whole killing thing, that is. Give him a hobby, knitting or watercolors or something. Hey, monsters are people too." He was saying with his grin and she laughed.

_She laughed. Elijah hadn't heard Elena laugh in weeks and certainly not with him. Something cold and angry crouched within him._

Elijah came around the corner, headed for the coffee pot and Elena smiled, offering him a silent and distracted good morning. He only nodded and met her gaze with a raised brow before he got a cup, filled it, nodded to her guest and went back out again.

_Damon couldn't help but notice the coldness and the changes between them. But he kept his mouth shut, something that was a real challenge for him. He was proud of controlling that impulse. Married people were alien. Not alien weird, alien like short green people with big eyes and space ships. They had a whole culture all their own, a whole orbit he would never understand. He personally didn't get the appeal of marriage, or grasp the idea in general at all. They were neither one happy, clearly. It would take a moron to miss that, and at the very least, he wasn't a moron. But still they stayed together. Why? He itched to ask, but he didn't….at least not at first._

The two of them sat at that kitchen table until the coffee was cold and Elena finally just brought Damon the bourbon bottle. When she drained her own coffee cup and refilled it with bourbon and then drained it again without stopping to notice, Damon made up his mind to speak. They had heard Elijah's car pull away twenty minutes ago.

_"Alright, girlfriend, spill." He crossed his arms over his chest. Elena was downing bourbon like it was water at nine AM. This was his breakfast fare, not hers._

_ He watched her eyes grow wary, looking back at him over her coffee cum bourbon. He met that wary look with a raised brow._

_ "What? There's nothing to spill." Shrug. "I just have a lot on my mind." And then, to his horror, her eyes filled with tears. Well, shit._

_ He pushed back his chair and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "That's enough of that now. Messy stuff, tears. Stop. Please." He was a terrible girlfriend, clearly and he said so._

_ So now she was both laughing and crying on his shoulder. She had already moved to the tearful sloppy stage. Great, and this was his favorite shirt._

_ And then he noticed a scent he had missed before. And he smiled to himself. Damon always had a plan. Not always a smart plan, or even a safe one for that matter, but he always had a plan._

"What?" Elena was pretty sure she was drunk. She couldn't possibly be hearing what she thought she was hearing.

"I said, come home with me." Damon said it again like she was a challenged two year old. "Listen, you're clearly not happy here anymore or you wouldn't be doing the whole teary thing. Just come back with me. You can stay at my place or don't stay at my place. Move back to Mystic Falls, into your parents' old home or the lake house or whatever. Just, for God's sake, leave him. He's made you miserable." He motioned to the tears. "Why the hell would you stay? You haven't even told me what's wrong and I can tell you that that's your answer." _Damon pulled out his mental stop watch and started the timer._

"Of course I'm not going to leave him." _Elena looked appalled. Appalled enough to stop crying. Thank you, God._ "Things have just been hard. We're readjusting after what happened. It'll be alright. We'll be alright. We have to be." She didn't know what she expected Damon's reaction to be when she refused his ideas, but the wide grin wasn't it.

She wiped her face with her hand. Damon stood and got her a napkin from the kitchen counter, grinning even wider, like an idiot. He moved back to his seat wide eyed and grinning. What the hell was he up to?

"You can't honestly be telling me that you still love that stiff, pompous jackass after what he did to you?" _Wow, this was fun._

"Of course I love him."

Damon tipped his head back and roared with laughter. "I notice you aren't denying that your husband is a stiff, pompous jackass." _He really was throwing all caution to the wind now. _

The deafening crash in the kitchen broke the silence as the large kitchen window over the breakfast nook they were sitting at collapsed inward sending shattering glass in all directions. And just that fast Damon was gone from Elena's kitchen.

_Damon was laughing in triumph as he hit the stop on that mental stop watch. His mark was when heard the crash and felt the hands grasp and throw him. Two minutes and thirty seven seconds. A new record for royally pissing someone off. Damn, I'm good._

_Elijah would kill Damon. And enjoy killing him. This little, rotten bastard thought he could waltz into Elijah's home and try to take his wife from him? Stand there in his kitchen insulting him to his wife? _

_ He had reached in and snatched Damon from the kitchen, pitching him out across the back yard. Then Elijah moved fast enough that he was still waiting for Damon to make the initial impact when he landed the first blow._

_One good fist to his face made Elijah feel a bit better, but it still wasn't quite enough. He had a great deal more planned, but Damon stood, grinning, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. "Well, hello, Elijah. I've been meaning to tell you about this old saying I heard once. Wait…actually, it's very old. You were probably around when it started….it says you should never eavesdrop because you'll never hear anything good about yourself."_

_Elijah froze. Damon had known he was there._

_And then Elena was barreling across the yard. And all Elijah could do was watch her come. And then Damon was at his side, watching her coming angrily too. Damon was talking fast. "She has you as screwed up as I was when I messed us up. I offered her the outs you have both evidently been afraid to say out loud. And. She. Turned. Me. Down. Flat. You heard her. She also looked at me like I had grown another head. I'll never understand why, but she loves you, you idiot. God help me if I'll ever understand either of you. Learn to trust her again. She's not going anywhere. Oh, and good luck. You're going to need it. I'm outta here." And then Damon was gone. Damon knew who he was really afraid of, and she was nearly upon them._


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Elena was absolutely seething as she came across the grass. Damon was gone. She would deal with him later. Right now she had eyes only for Elijah, and those eyes glowed red.

"Darling," Her voice was light and sweet, and dripping with sarcasm. She tilted her head in mock concession to him. "Please, let's try not to injure my guests. Do you think you could handle that? If it helps, think of him as a person. His name is Damon, and he's my best friend. Push it down, sweetheart."

_Her eyes had narrowed as she spoke. She was imitating the speech he had given her on the plane about not killing the staff. So she remembered that. He had wondered. And now he was angry too._

"_I don't care for that part, most of all." He growled._

"_Which part exactly, sweetheart?" The sarcasm, her eyes wide with mock innocence._

"_The part where you call an ex-lover your best friend." She snorted. Laughed. At. Him._

_She stepped in close and patted his cheek lightly. "There is modern vernacular for that. It's called "baggage". Please try to keep up, Grandfather. Damon is part of my baggage. And considering that you're toting around three thousand years worth of that shit, I would think you could be a little more understanding. Understanding's what you excel at, isn't it?" Elena's red eyes had narrowed to slits in her fury._

Elena was officially on a roll.

She watched his eyes narrow and turn red to match her own. _Good. We're finally on the same page. _

"Is there anything else you're just itching to say, Elena?" Although his eyes were red, his voice and his expressions were calm and in contrast. He angled his head, curious and ever patient. It made her all the more angry.

"Yes, Elijah. There is. While I was on that plane, and you were condescending to my beastly self, I remember thinking that I would like very much to hit you, hard and repeatedly. And so…" She threw her fist, aimed at his jaw and he ducked just in time for her to miss. But her hand had whistled through the air and would've been damaging if it had met its target. _And then he had the nerve to grin._ So she aimed for a larger target, his abdomen, intending to do harm. _God, she was mad._

He moved away again. "You will always be faster, wiser. You will always have lifetimes more experience to draw on, in every situation. Therefore you will always be better. And you damned well know it. And sometimes that is hard to live with. Damn you." Each word was punctuated with a wind whistling blow that missed. They had trained together before, but she had never had anger behind the shots she took at him. So they came, one hand, one fist and one foot at a time in quick succession while she tried to take his head off. And his smile grew wider every time she missed, making her all the angrier.

_God, she was beautiful. _So angry_. He knew that she thought he was goading her. He wasn't actually. Elijah was thinking that the angrier she got, the harder he had to work to stay out of her way. A few more years, ten, thirty, fifty, and he wouldn't be able to stay out of her way anymore….and he would be in real trouble. The two of them, clashing this way, would end badly and probably for him. The thought, angry or not, made him want to laugh in real joy. He felt monumental pride at what she was becoming, but he wouldn't say it because she would call that condescending too._

_They were saying all the things that had built up between them, stones stacking one on another, building a wall that had been reaching higher every year. When Elijah thought he was teaching, helping. She thought he was condescending. It was a revelation to him. _

"_If you have felt this way all this time, why have you not just said it, Elena? How hard was that?" Damnable woman. "Do I have to remind you, like a child learning to speak, to use your words?" That was said in anger, his control was slipping._

If she could've got her hands around his throat in that moment, she would've made herself a merry widow in about two seconds flat. Instead, she stopped moving, growing still in her absolute fury.

"Because, you great colossal ass, I love you. I didn't say it because I knew you were trying to help, in your way. Useless as it was sometimes, at least you were trying. At least you didn't just walk away. Not then anyway. It would take a little more for you to do that." And so they were at the heart of the matter for her.

Elijah grew still then too. "We've discussed this." His tone was wary.

"Yes, we did. But I know now how it feels for you to walk away. If it happened once, it can happen again. So now I walk around on eggshells wondering if it will be today that I cross some line I don't see. Today will he decide that there are better things he could be doing than being married to some child he has to remind to use her words?" She should've been crying, for all the pain in her questions, but she didn't have any tears left.

She touched his face gently. "When will the lessons be finished, Elijah? What if I'm tired of attending school? When do I get my husband back? Or do I, ever?"

"_I'm here and _Iwill never leave you again_. But I don't believe you can honestly say the same. It seems to me that you walk through every day here with one foot halfway out the door. You don't look at me, don't speak about anything real, pulling always further away. You are here, and gone all at once." The red in his eyes faded to brown as the pain swamped his anger._

Her distance, mistrust had created this in him. This was her fault, because she couldn't, wouldn't speak about her fears to him. Elena ached in her shame, but the anger wouldn't let go. Not yet.

"_And if you were to go back to what you became after that battle, I would just have to join you. We would carve our way across the continent with a trail of dead bodies, because I can't live without you, promise or no promise." The admission, the pain was torn from him. He would break his word, give up his iron control over all things, including himself, in his love for her now. _

For Elena, _that_ was a revelation.

"_As for the rest, the training, all you ever had to do was speak, Elena. Let me know what you were thinking. But you kept quiet, letting this anger build between us. I knew it was there, I just didn't know why. And it has always seemed to me that you have kept your ex-lover close, as an option to fall back on. Is he forever around in the event that I don't meet your expectations?" Elijah was convinced that Elena loved Damon. And she couldn't damned well have them both._

"_Elijah, I left him long before I ever became involved with you. What happened there was entirely separate from this, us. It will always be separate. You have had other lovers. They don't intrude on your life now because they were alive in antiquity. I don't have that option. I still care for him…" _

_The lines appeared across Elijah's face at her words, brown eyes leaking away again to red. He was lost again in the furious jealousy that nearly swallowing him whole. "NO DAMMIT, LET ME FINISH." She yelled at him, a roar from her chest, like he did when he was just as angry. She was right up in his face now. He tamped down his fury and waited for her to finish her thought. "I still care about him, but it changed over time. That would've happened even if you and I had never gotten involved. He would have become my friend this way, even if I had married Matt or never married at all. Damon and I were never suited to be lovers. We are too much alike. We nearly killed one another even when I was just human. It would not have gotten better. But Damon and I make great friends." He didn't know this, how the ending of their relationship had gone. He had never asked, not sure he would be able to bear the hearing of it._

_And then she turned his tone back on him again and said "If you felt this way, Elijah, all you had to do was ask, speak. I could've told you these things years ago, given the chance." Damnation, she was right._

_He was just as much to blame for their condition as she was._

Elena watched the fury drain from him and felt her own leak away. He opened both hands at his sides in surrender. And she stepped in close again, into his arms. "Is there anything else I need to hear?" He asked it into her hair. She shook her head, which was difficult because her face was tucked into his neck. "No. I don't think so. Only that I love you and have had enough of hurting, hurting you, hurting me. It's all the same. I feel your pain like it's my own now and I'm to blame for hiding from you."

Elijah's arms tightened around her. She was so much more brave than he was. So willing to see her faults and face them. That was a knack he had never acquired. When he told her so, she leaned back to see if he was mocking her, but she saw that he wasn't. His eyes were pained and sincere. "You shame me without your courage, little one."

And so they rested in one another again, and the laughter returned.

They cleaned up the kitchen together, while she threatened to tell their friends and neighbors that the kitchen window had been crushed by a very rare and mysterious breed of Jackass Bird beating against the glass at its reflection. And Elijah laughed long and hard at her teasing, because she was right. And Damon had been right. He was a pompous jackass.

A week later, Elijah was crossing town in his Mercedes when his cell phone buzzed. He saw that it was Elena and smiled. Opening it, he said "Hi, there."

She huffed and he heard anger in the sound. _Now what?_

"Elijah, do you remember how I told you that your old lovers didn't interfere with your life because they were all in antiquity?" _She was seething. The words were coming from deep in her chest, a beast ready to roar. What the hell?_

"Yes." _His voice came out sounding calm. That was an accomplishment he took pride in, in the face of her fury._

"Well, I take it back. I came home to find something of yours waiting here for you. We have a non- violence agreement, so do you think you could come home and take out the old Euro trash with the tired, fake southern accent before I dispose of it myself?" _He heard a feminine gasp of indignation in the background that was not Elena's voice._

_Oh._


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Elena had returned from a quick afternoon shopping trip to find her home infused with a strange scent. Lavender and roses was it, cloying and lingering all over her stairs. She had followed it through her home to the master bedroom and found the very image of herself installed, naked and waiting on the white sheets. Katherine. Elena had seen red.

Eyes red, face lined, but no fangs, she had proceeded to begin the end of the bitch. And Katherine had taken one look, seeing the indicators of a stronger vampire and attempted first to fight back and then to run. Her efforts had made Elena laugh out loud in wicked and fermented fury.

Through a bloody foam, Katherine admitted she was there to "comfort" Elijah in the loss of his wife. Katherine had been misinformed and thought Elena was long dead.

"So the fool changed you with his own blood?" Katherine had shaken her head in horror, for her own skin, of course. And the hand around her throat had tightened, those red eyes narrowing on her. Katherine shuddered in fear. Elena wanted nothing more than to smash her neck and feed this bitch her own heart.

There was no other person walking the earth that she hated more than this ancestor she had lived in fear of for years. Just for what she had done to Damon and Stefan, all those years ago, and then more recently would've been enough for Elena to annihilate her with joy. Add to that the very idea that she would come here, using her body and face, so similar to Elena's, to comfort what she had believed would be a grieving Elijah made Elena absolutely seethe. The beast within Elena's breast roared for her blood. And then Elena had made that call. She had given Elijah her word. She wouldn't break it for this bitch.

She turned on the bitch and pushed into her mind without finesse, hard, slamming through what meager defenses the other vampire had without some much as a flicker of effort. She had never tried to compel another vampire, but found it easy and effortless. "You will sit on that bed and wait just as you are. And I will have that bracelet of yours, thank you very much. Damon has a birthday coming up and would treasure it for his trophy case." The bracelet was Katherine's version of a daylight ring. Elena intended that she would have no use for it after today.

They had all thought Katherine was dead. Elena intended that she personally would have no doubt by the end of this evening. She couldn't do it herself without risk that she didn't see value in, but her husband could, and would, or it would be on. Katherine's days of rising from the ashes like a phoenix would be over.

Obediently, Katherine sat back onto the bed and removed her bracelet, laying it in Elena's hand. Her brown eyes were filled with fear because she could do nothing but obey.

"He loved me first." Katherine called at Elena's retreating back as she headed out of the room. A prideful, unwise parting shot. Typical Katherine. Elena turned and smiled at her. "Yes, I know. But he'll love me last because you won't be breathing by sunrise tomorrow. Even if I have to compel you out to the yard without this." She tossed the ugly bracelet into the air lightly as she spoke, a single brow raised at the other woman, still naked on Elena's bed. It satisfied her to watch Katherine's eyes widen in horror. "I suppose I could use your ashes to fertilize my roses…..I'll have to think about that. You sit there quietly and think on it, too. I find that the sound of your voice wears on my nerves." Katherine opened her mouth and found that no sound would come out.

God, Elena hated that woman.

She sat on the porch swing, waiting for Elijah. She didn't even want to be in the same house with her.

And that's where Elijah found her. She looked up at him, eyes still red, veins still prominent meeting his gaze with narrowed eyes and he stopped warily before he stepped up on the porch.

"Katarina." Elena would know that Katherine was born in Bulgaria, a Petrova. Elijah knew when Elena asked him to take out the Euro trash that it could only be Katarina.

"She's just as I found her, plus a few bruises, and minus a bit of blood, oh….and this." She held out her hand and showed him the bracelet that Katherine wore so she could walk in the daylight. "You'll find her naked, on our bed."

Elijah's expression was mortified. "I didn't…..I haven't….I would never…" he was struggling to find words, certain she would think that Katarina was here at his request, or that something like this had happened before between him and the other vampire to make her think she would be welcome here.

_Elijah. Sputtering._ Elena watched him shudder in horror. If she wasn't so angry, Elena would've laughed at his loss of composure. He never lacked composure. But even he was at a loss on this one.

She rescued him, smiling and standing to take one of his hands. "No, I know. It's okay. Not your fault. While I was wailing the hell out of her, I made her tell me. She was told I was dead and she came to comfort the grieving widower." Her eyes blazed again. "Wearing my face and my body, she would've walked in here and used them against you. And frankly I want to tear her limb from limb and fire up the grill just at the thought." There was no telling what Katherine's goal was in the exercise. Control? Torment? Revenge for years of angry pursuit from Elijah? Perhaps money or material gain of some kind. It was impossible to tell, but Katherine always had an angle.

The very thought of Katarina as a stand in for Elena made Elijah shudder again. He could only hope that he would've never succumbed to such a thing, but if Elena had been taken from him forever, he couldn't honestly say how that scene would've played out. Katarina was a lot of things, but stupid wasn't usually one of them. He wondered how she got such bad information and ended up here, exposed and getting her ass kicked by his very angry, very possessive wife. That thought made him smile. _Elena. Possessive._ He would take time to ponder that later, but it was a first in their relationship, and she was completely ready to do murder. He couldn't help but feel a measure of satisfaction with this turn of events.

"I already killed her for you once, Elena. She just won't stay dead. What the hell? How does a vampire do that?"

"I compelled her. I suppose you could go ask and we'll force her to answer. Because I am never coming home to this kind of thing again. I can't kill her, the whole "no murder thing". But I nearly decided to make this one an exception. If it hadn't been for that promise I made you, you would've found a new pile of ashes to fertilize the roses with."

Elijah laughed. "She would've given them the blight." And then he caught the first part of what she had said. "You compelled her?" Elijah was overjoyed. She could already overcome the protective mental barrier of other vampires. Amazing.

Her eyes faded back to brown at his look of pride. She grinned and stepped in close to kiss him tenderly on the mouth. When she stepped back, she patted a cheek. "Focus, darling….we have a vampire to kill."

The two of them converged on Katherine and between them, she had no defenses. They found that she had a spell she had been using. She had a reanimation spell that wouldn't allow her to die unless certain criteria were met. More pushing found that the spell was anchored in her daylight bracelet, which Elena had already taken from her. That was the first step in the spell nullification. The other part required that the person who took her life had to have loved her once. Those would be few and far between, certainly, but lucky Elena happened to be married to one of Katherine's former victims of the heart. So they already had what they needed. _There would be no mercy today._

But Elena did wait until Elijah was preoccupied and out of earshot before she pushed Katherine to tell her who had misled her to believe that Elena was long dead. Katherine's admission confirmed her suspicions. Elena would handle that herself.

So Elijah took Katherine for parts unknown and didn't share his plan with Elena. They agreed that she and murder, even justified, needed to be distanced. So she kissed him, glared at Katherine one last time and Elijah hauled her away. The sun had set. Elena still had Katherine's bracelet.

Elena decided she had one last errand left for the night.

A short run and a few minutes later she was standing on the stoop of the Salvatore home. She rang the doorbell. A thoroughly sloshed Damon answered the door, smirking widely. She planted her left hook just below his jaw sending him crashing back against the far wall. She'd used her left hand instinctively because it was the weaker of the two. Yes, she was pissed, but he was still her friend. Unfortunately, violence was the only language he understood sometimes, and so he and Elena were going to "talk".

"Elena? What the hell?" He was pushing to get up.

Elena was sitting on his chest then, pressing down against his ribs and lungs, cross legged. She felt a crack or two and let up just a bit.

"You sent that bitch to my house." She accused him.

"Ah." Damon ran a hand over his face, stopping to examine a bit of blood rather than look at her. "So she told you that, did she?"

"I didn't give her much choice Damon. Between the wailing the hell out of her and the compelling, she told me everything. Why would you do that? God, Damon. You're my best friend and I love you. And you send that piece of shit to sit in my bed naked and wait for my "grieving" husband?"

Damon coughed and gasped out a laugh, spitting blood and she moved off of his chest. She did, however continue to pin him down with her gaze. "Now I didn't arrange that, Elena. I just led her to believe you weren't around anymore, hoping to distract her and get rid of her. She's stronger than I am, unfortunately, and once she plants herself, she's damned hard to shake. I figured if she was crazy enough to head that way, you and Elijah would handle it. I never dreamed she would do some shit like that." He was laughing again. "You killed her, didn't you? _Please tell me you killed her." _

Elena shook her head. "Elijah is taking care of it right now. We even found out how she kept coming back from the dead over and over. It was a spell." She took one of his hands, turned it over and laid the bracelet in it. "This is for you. Happy Early Birthday."

He sat up, examining it. "Elena, honey. You do understand that the whole "girlfriend" thing is just a joke right?" He was grinning broadly again. "This isn't exactly my style. I don't have _a thing_ to wear with it..."

"It's her daylight bracelet, you moron." She laughed.

Damon looked again and remembered seeing it. And Elena continued, "For your trophy case. Just don't give it to anyone that you don't want to keep coming back like a bad penny. The spell is attached to it."

_Wow. Katherine's really gone this time. Damon wanted to hug his friend. So, in the spirit of grateful girlfriend bonding, he did just that._

"All you had to do was ask, Damon. God. You don't have to manipulate to get help anymore." Elena was shaking her head.

"Yeah, okay, my bad. Sorry about that. Force of habit I guess…I'll just call next time." He had the good grace to look ashamed. He was thinking that it was nice having someone as strong as her around from time to time. He was pretty sure she would always have his back with no strings attached. A strange feeling, that.

Elena leaned back against the wall, still sitting on the floor next to him. "What I'd really like to know is why I can't stay mad at you."

"Oh, that one's easy." He was still extolling his virtues as she smiled at him, closing the door on her way out. Humble had always been his personal favorite on the extensive list.

Elijah came home to find a bonfire in his back yard. He was laughing as he realized that Elena had broken the bed apart and thrown it off the balcony, mattress and all, to be burned a great pile in the grass behind their home. That bed was a few hundred years old, but he would never say a word. She had every right to want rid of any images that would have lingered there now. Of all people, he knew how that could feel.

He found her sitting on a concrete bench she had moved close. She was watching the fire. He came to stand behind her, draping his arms around her neck.

"It's done." That was all he had to say about Katarina.

She ran her hand along his arms. "Thank you."

"Did you figure out how she got the impression you were dead?" He had his own suspicion on that topic.

"Yes, I did. It was Damon. And before you go all stiff and disappear, I've already kicked his ass. I left him as a bloody heap in his foyer. Of course he didn't mean for it to turn out that way, but everything he touches turns to shit, I swear." Elijah was laughing, wishing he could've seen that.

Thinking of how she had evidently lambasted Katherine in their bedroom, he wished he could've seen that too.

He leaned in close to her ear, still standing behind her and said "I thought _I_ was territorial, little one. Damn." He had seen the extent of Katherine's injuries, and been impressed.

Elena knew he was talking about Katherine's full body bruising when they had converged on her in the bedroom. Even in the face of increased vampire healing she had still worn most of the signs of the damage Elena had done in her absolute fury at finding the other woman naked, in her bed, and waiting on her husband. "I've always felt that way about you, Elijah. I just didn't have the muscle to back it up considering the company you had kept. Now I do. Some other woman, vampire or not, tries to land in your bed and I will take her apart, I swear." The rumble was in her chest again.

"_I had no idea you felt that way." She had always seemed so casual about the two of them from his perspective. Other than a few references to Katarina and the resemblance between the two being a motivator when they first met, she had never brought up the topic of his old lovers, or expressed interest at all about his comings and goings from day to day, for that matter. She had not even shown any interest in the women he worked with either. Not that he would ever give her reason to, but the total lack of concern had seemed out of place. It was another revelation to him that she could be jealous and possessive. It appeared she could feel the same territorial instincts that male vampires felt, after all. His impression before had been that she didn't give a damn, and he had never spoken about it, but had always felt a bit out of sorts with the state of that corner of their relationship. As if they were unbalanced, somehow._

_Although jealousy and possessiveness were not attractive traits, they were instinctual for vampire relationships, and something he had become accustomed to over the centuries from himself_ _and others to varying degrees. To find a total lack of it in his long awaited human wife, then for it to continue in that vein with his transformed vampire wife had been disconcerting at best. The whole situation had made him quietly question her feelings for him just a bit, if he was honest._

_He personally had really struggled in this area in his relationship with her and all of the other men she called friend. Sometimes it was harder to contain than others, but it was always there, an instinct to protect what was his with violence._

_She turned in his arms and looked up into his eyes. "I just kept my mouth shut, before and didn't ask questions. I didn't want to be some petty jealous harpy. But I won't be quiet anymore, not after this. You are the most wonderful, beautiful man I have ever known, Elijah and You. Are. Mine. I just won't share."_

_It was Elijah's turn to be thankful that they were both finally on the same page._

**Author's note: And so we leave Elena and Elijah having grown ever closer together, and still learning from and about one another. I have personally found that a good marriage will just do that to you. **

**Their story doesn't actually have an end, considering the whole immortality thing.**

**Thank you for reading. I appreciate each of you very much. I have been watching my numbers climb and been amazed at the number of hits and visitors my ramblings get. I'm grateful.**


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